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Old 04-01-2017, 01:53 PM
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chief38 chief38 is offline
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Default REFINISHING A GUN DOES NOT ALWAYS DEGRADE IT!

I have certainly not refinished a lot of guns but I did have a few done. When I "hung up my spurs" after 20 years and stopped shooting cowboy action matches my two Colt SAA's blued finishes were beat up to say the least. Most guys who participated in SASS matches used Rugers, Umburties, etc. and kept their Colts in the safe at home. I bought the Colts to shoot and enjoy which I certainly did!

About 5 or 6 years ago I brought them up to Colt and had them refinished with the Royal Blue as they had left the Factory in the 80's with. I have to say that Colt did an OUTSTANDING job on them and they now look better than they did when new! Since I will NEVER sell them I could care less if I "devalued" them but to me I have NEVER regretted re-doing them and would do so again in a heart beat. Looking at the beat up finishes pained me much more than a factory refinish They now are my pride and joy and yes I still shoot them. Not that I really have to explain myself, but they WERE refinished by Colt.

The other gun I had refinished was a Lever gun that I inherited. The bluing was so far gone off the barrel, magazine tube and lever that it was a full time job keeping them from turning brown. Again, since I will NEVER sell it I sent it to MGW and they also did a SUPERB reblue on it. While the gun was out being refinished I refinished the stock and fore-end myself. The finish that was originally there was flaking off and I did not want a beautiful reblued action in a beat up stock. I gently sanded the wood, repaired any faults and put about 10 coats of 100% Tung Oil on it. When the action came back I reassembled it and have been a very happy camper ever since. BTW the Rifle was made in 1946.

So there are my refinishes. Personally I do not like owning beat up guns but sometimes when they are used every week, shot tens and tens of thousands of times and do get ugly. Since these guns are NOT investments but for pure enjoyment I am not concerned in what the "experts" say, and when I am gone at least my kids will have some nice guns to hand down to their kids (assuming guns are not out-lawed).

If I purchased a S&W Registered Magnum, a SAA that belonged to Wyatt Earp, a gun used in WWl or WWll then I would NEVER have it refinished as I do consider them to be "Historical Pieces". So that is my personal opinion and while others may not agree, it's a choice that each individual has to make.
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