I'm in the same boat as the OP. Since I don't hunt, I can nearly restore older guns to original status. All this talk on lever guns got me interested in my Marlins. One, a 336 which had been drilled through the bullseye for a sling stud...ugh. I replaced the bullseye but noticed a scab on the stock. One ding. I'd have to refinish the entire stock but then I'm not going to refinish the stock for what is a minor flaw. But I wish it didn't exist. BTW, the finished bullseye is only about 1/16 thick and the blanks you get from Brownell's is about an inch or so long.
Like you it’s all about making a highly subjective assessment. Some flaws just seem to belong like a small nick on a stock or some wear on the wood or in the bluing on a receiver. Others like a chewed up screw or a poor/wrong replacement part just annoy me and I find I get an almost irrational need to deal with them.
That's just what I was thinking! I'm OCD enough that I want those screws right and aligned if possible. I do the same with receptacle covers and gang switch covers. It drives me nuts to see them facing different directions.
For me it depends on the gun. My newer guns are kept as is or maybe a trigger job or new/better sights. The old guns we inherited from my late FIL are another story. Every one of them was neglected for decades. After giving them all a good cleaning, one by one my plan was to restore them. A broken stock was replaced, another cut short with a shotgun pad on it replaced with a old in great shape stock that matched the other wood. BigAl recommended some things, Jaywapti sent me the rear sight lever needed for a 94 and explained how to get rid of surface rust without damaging the metal, the list goes on. I purchased some replacement screws, but some I put the old ones back on because new screws just stood out on a 100 year old levergun. They are now totally cleaned and repaired mechanically and have been shot. For now, that is good enough. After I retire, there are a few that may be professionally restored to near new condition, but then again, when I hand a rifle down to a Grandchild, maybe it should look just like it did when great great grandpa hunted with it.
Logistics cannot win a war, but its absence or inadequacy can cause defeat. FM100-5
I'm in the same boat as the OP. Since I don't hunt, I can nearly restore older guns to original status. All this talk on lever guns got me interested in my Marlins. One, a 336 which had been drilled through the bullseye for a sling stud...ugh. I replaced the bullseye but noticed a scab on the stock. One ding. I'd have to refinish the entire stock but then I'm not going to refinish the stock for what is a minor flaw. But I wish it didn't exist. BTW, the finished bullseye is only about 1/16 thick and the blanks you get from Brownell's is about an inch or so long.
Like you it’s all about making a highly subjective assessment. Some flaws just seem to belong like a small nick on a stock or some wear on the wood or in the bluing on a receiver. Others like a chewed up screw or a poor/wrong replacement part just annoy me and I find I get an almost irrational need to deal with them.
That's just what I was thinking! I'm OCD enough that I want those screws right and aligned if possible. I do the same with receptacle covers and gang switch covers. It drives me nuts to see them facing different directions.
For me it depends on the gun. My newer guns are kept as is or maybe a trigger job or new/better sights. The old guns we inherited from my late FIL are another story. Every one of them was neglected for decades. After giving them all a good cleaning, one by one my plan was to restore them. A broken stock was replaced, another cut short with a shotgun pad on it replaced with a old in great shape stock that matched the other wood. BigAl recommended some things, Jaywapti sent me the rear sight lever needed for a 94 and explained how to get rid of surface rust without damaging the metal, the list goes on. I purchased some replacement screws, but some I put the old ones back on because new screws just stood out on a 100 year old levergun. They are now totally cleaned and repaired mechanically and have been shot. For now, that is good enough. After I retire, there are a few that may be professionally restored to near new condition, but then again, when I hand a rifle down to a Grandchild, maybe it should look just like it did when great great grandpa hunted with it.
Oh major flaws like broken or cut down stocks HAVE to go, but honest wear might just get touched up a little here and there. I want old guns to say, experienced, not trashed. Then again some get a ground up restoration. I got this old Montgomery Ward 30-06 real Mauser action with splits on the stock, rust on the metal and worn off bluing, and someone had poorly installed a recoil pad on it. Today it looks like the day it left the store. Took me a long time to get it close to perfect perfect and I even got a correct, unused, period correct, in the original box Montgomery Ward cleaning kit!
You're not alone. But to do that you have to have the means to do it.
Down here you have to catch whatever you get in any condition and deal with it. Currently restoring my new Winchester 52 is taking some covert operations and Indiana Jones-like scrounging that if in the US I could solve within a week with a credit card and online shopping. No gun parts shipping from eBay or Gunbroker for us
It's nice to have guns, specially old ones, in sound condition and as original as you can/wish. Problem is that if you start documenting yourself it can be even worse!
I'm in the same boat as the OP. Since I don't hunt, I can nearly restore older guns to original status. All this talk on lever guns got me interested in my Marlins. One, a 336 which had been drilled through the bullseye for a sling stud...ugh. I replaced the bullseye but noticed a scab on the stock. One ding. I'd have to refinish the entire stock but then I'm not going to refinish the stock for what is a minor flaw. But I wish it didn't exist. BTW, the finished bullseye is only about 1/16 thick and the blanks you get from Brownell's is about an inch or so long.
Like you it’s all about making a highly subjective assessment. Some flaws just seem to belong like a small nick on a stock or some wear on the wood or in the bluing on a receiver. Others like a chewed up screw or a poor/wrong replacement part just annoy me and I find I get an almost irrational need to deal with them.
That's just what I was thinking! I'm OCD enough that I want those screws right and aligned if possible. I do the same with receptacle covers and gang switch covers. It drives me nuts to see them facing different directions.
You too? I even orient resistor color codes in the same direction when building/assembling circuit boards! Text on caps face up so they can be read, etc.
-Zorba, "The Veiled Male"
"If you get it and didn't work for it, someone else worked for it and didn't get it..."
I'm in the same boat as the OP. Since I don't hunt, I can nearly restore older guns to original status. All this talk on lever guns got me interested in my Marlins. One, a 336 which had been drilled through the bullseye for a sling stud...ugh. I replaced the bullseye but noticed a scab on the stock. One ding. I'd have to refinish the entire stock but then I'm not going to refinish the stock for what is a minor flaw. But I wish it didn't exist. BTW, the finished bullseye is only about 1/16 thick and the blanks you get from Brownell's is about an inch or so long.
Like you it’s all about making a highly subjective assessment. Some flaws just seem to belong like a small nick on a stock or some wear on the wood or in the bluing on a receiver. Others like a chewed up screw or a poor/wrong replacement part just annoy me and I find I get an almost irrational need to deal with them.
That's just what I was thinking! I'm OCD enough that I want those screws right and aligned if possible. I do the same with receptacle covers and gang switch covers. It drives me nuts to see them facing different directions.
You too? I even orient resistor color codes in the same direction when building/assembling circuit boards! Text on caps face up so they can be read, etc.
It's not hard, you just have to pay attention and have CDO. It doesn't take more time, relieves a lot of stress and insomnia.
I just put a new bumper and gravel guard on my truck. Between the two bumpers they used both bolts and plastic fasteners. I had to use the best of both worlds. Bolts in the stress points and plastic clips in all the other opening. Over kill, NO, just OCD and more right.
I'm in the same boat as the OP. Since I don't hunt, I can nearly restore older guns to original status. All this talk on lever guns got me interested in my Marlins. One, a 336 which had been drilled through the bullseye for a sling stud...ugh. I replaced the bullseye but noticed a scab on the stock. One ding. I'd have to refinish the entire stock but then I'm not going to refinish the stock for what is a minor flaw. But I wish it didn't exist. BTW, the finished bullseye is only about 1/16 thick and the blanks you get from Brownell's is about an inch or so long.
Like you it’s all about making a highly subjective assessment. Some flaws just seem to belong like a small nick on a stock or some wear on the wood or in the bluing on a receiver. Others like a chewed up screw or a poor/wrong replacement part just annoy me and I find I get an almost irrational need to deal with them.
That's just what I was thinking! I'm OCD enough that I want those screws right and aligned if possible. I do the same with receptacle covers and gang switch covers. It drives me nuts to see them facing different directions.
You too? I even orient resistor color codes in the same direction when building/assembling circuit boards! Text on caps face up so they can be read, etc.
You are just signing your work when you do that. Comes in handy. When I mount 4 new tires on a customer's vehicle, I orient the sidewall markings with the valve stems the same way on all 4. If I take the wheels off of a vehicle that is equipped with wheel locks, it goes back together with the wheel locks all oriented the same way in relation to the valve stem. Center caps all get oriented as well. Customers don't notice it, but if I ever get a vehicle back that I worked on before and something isn't lined up, I know that someone else has mucked around with it after me. Hell, I even line up all the plastic panel clips the same way when I re-install cowl and radiator close-out panels.
"If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace." - Thomas Paine
"I know my place in the world and it ain’t standing next to Jerry Miculek" - Zee
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It’s a °IIIII° thing 😎
The old guns we inherited from my late FIL are another story. Every one of them was neglected for decades. After giving them all a good cleaning, one by one my plan was to restore them. A broken stock was replaced, another cut short with a shotgun pad on it replaced with a old in great shape stock that matched the other wood. BigAl recommended some things, Jaywapti sent me the rear sight lever needed for a 94 and explained how to get rid of surface rust without damaging the metal, the list goes on. I purchased some replacement screws, but some I put the old ones back on because new screws just stood out on a 100 year old levergun. They are now totally cleaned and repaired mechanically and have been shot. For now, that is good enough. After I retire, there are a few that may be professionally restored to near new condition, but then again, when I hand a rifle down to a Grandchild, maybe it should look just like it did when great great grandpa hunted with it.
It’s a °IIIII° thing 😎
Thats another one, how about accessories?
It’s a °IIIII° thing 😎
Down here you have to catch whatever you get in any condition and deal with it. Currently restoring my new Winchester 52 is taking some covert operations and Indiana Jones-like scrounging that if in the US I could solve within a week with a credit card and online shopping. No gun parts shipping from eBay or Gunbroker for us
It's nice to have guns, specially old ones, in sound condition and as original as you can/wish. Problem is that if you start documenting yourself it can be even worse!
Snort! Right?
Leave it to the mods
It’s a °IIIII° thing 😎
I just put a new bumper and gravel guard on my truck. Between the two bumpers they used both bolts and plastic fasteners. I had to use the best of both worlds. Bolts in the stress points and plastic clips in all the other opening. Over kill, NO, just OCD and more right.
I get it!