1880 (ish) Top break 38S&W

[Kingmedicine]

So i just bought a Top Break 38S&W with a chopped barrel. Ive always wanted one, so it was worth the pick up. My Question would be, how horribly hard would it be to get this refinished and cleaned up. I think this would be a great revolver to get cleaned up and pass down with my current collection. Its a DA hammer model. Its serial number is 56XXX. The date above was more of a guess on the model. Personally i dont know the details.

Is this realistic without breaking the bank? the revolver still fires, but only has about 20% of the nickel finish left.

 

[H Richard]

A re-finish in nickle would be somewhere in the vicinity of $200 to $300, depending on how much stripping and polishing it would need. Keep in mind the value wouldn't change much as refinished guns are normally valued at half the value of a comparable condition original finish gun. You would want to have it checked over closely by a competent gunsmith for mechanical condition before considering any refinishing. It isn't normally an economically feasible project, unless you are unconcerned about the cost and future value.

 

[DWalt]

I agree. It's your money and you can spend it as you wish, but if it's already been modified (cut down) as you describe it's not worth much in monetary terms to begin with, and re-plating it won't help its value. It's seldom worthwhile to refinish unless you just can't resist doing it for whatever reason and don't have anything better to spend your cash on (like gasoline, food, utilities, etc.).

 

[opoefc]

Why waste your money putting lip stick on a pig? For what it will cost you, ( unless you have the skills & tools to do it yourself) you can buy a used Model 36, or similar, and have a much better revolver. My 2 cents. Ed

 

[M Phil]

I differ on that point

It already has no collector value due to the chop. But that doesn't mean the same as having no value. 2 - 3 hundred to make it the kind of gun you would like it to be seems good to me. I would do it to something that had a collector value. But I am a strong supporter of pollishing turds.

I picked up a beat down junk winchester 97. cut the barrel down to 26 inches and had it tapped for chock tubes. then polished it and had it reblued. It had no collector value but it is one heck of a dove gun now and purdy to look at.

 

[Kingmedicine]

Oh, i already know this gun has little to no real value past what it is, and that any reconditioning would not do much past make it prettier. But im willing to put 200 bucks into it to clean it up for me, not for resale or value. I have about 8 revolvers now for my collection, and this would be an added neat peice.

But for me to have it apart of the collection, i would want it cleaned up a bit. At least have the barrel cleaned up and crowned and a simple refinishing.