winchester 54

a j cave

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I have an estate gun & don't know what it is worth. ( sorry I don't know pics) It is a 270 & the varnish finish is lifting, blueing is light & varried. It has an old peep sight. bore looks good. It has the original butt plate with no cracks> should I steel wool & oil finish it to make it look better or what? Thanks to you that are in the know. AJ:wave:
 
Please leave it alone if you want top dollar as I have one in 7mm with a peep sight also and have been told the same. Mine has had less than 200 rounds through it as nobody had money in those days to waste on ammo, as it was their meat gun. Just my thoughts. Pics would be nice.
 
It's good to see that alot of guys realise that having a good layer of patina on an old collectible is alot better than having someone remove it and reblue it to cut it's value by over half.
 
I'd echo leave it as is too.
Every time I look at my Grampa's Cooey I refinished I just shudder.

That musty old oil and grease smell will grow on you and soon you will love it.
Enjoy the heirloom and take good care of it!
 
thanks guys if it was mine I would scope it & hunt it the way it is. Glad to see that u feel it is better to show the age. I have a friend that is just starting to hunt, she can't spend too much so I might show her this.I'll take it to the range first though. Thanks again AJ
 
If you scope it you will take away from it unless you use the old 54 scope mounts, that's why a lot of them used a peep site, and I have tried for years to get mounts so I don't know where you would start to look, the rear receiver on my 7mm has not been even drilled to even mount a scope, and then I would have to do the bolt, best left alone for all the shooting it will do anyways.
 
Model 54's are not worth a lot of money, what you are describing is a $300 or 400 dollar gun. So if you refinish it and put a scope on it I can't see devaluing such a gun very much. If this were a 98% gun then you wouldn't want to drill for a scope mount.
 
You might find that if you want to scope the old girl that you will need to choose from the menu below:

A) choose a small scope
B) mount the scope forward of the bolt handle
C) change the bolt handle.
 
Its a 4 digit serial # -1926 it is taped infront of action & probably under the peep. the holes are caped with screws, they look factory. I'll let the new owner decide if they want to clean it up.At $400 there is no real collector value just a shooter with history. Thanks all. AJ
 
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