If the bluing on the 1937 is original then I'd chop #2. If you owned three houses, two had good paint coverage and the third had bare wood that was starting to dry rot which would you change boards on and paint?

Admittedly I'm not the best collector and am not impressed by a gun's former government ownership.

The best alternative would be to wait for a 1917 that was already sporterized to come up for sale. We used to use sporterized to describe hunting rifles made out of surplus bolt actions. Best value in them was found by buying ones prior owners paid for most of the work on. Better collectors will speak well of you if you go this route.