Hello to all,
I recently took in a Stevens Model 39A, Bolt Action, .410 Shotgun as part of a settlement with someone who owed me some money. (Also got a beautiful 1939 Winchester Model 75 Target with original scope which was what I was really interested in, but...I digress)
From what I have gathered so far, the Stevens was only made from 1938 thru 1945 but is not really worth a lot or particularly sought after.
The metal and action seem to be in pretty decent shape and I think will clean up OK. The stock however is in pretty rough shape. My first instinct is to strip, repair and refinish the stock. Some of the scrapes and gouges are pretty deep. I would try and steam out everything I could before sanding but in this case I don't think that is going to take care of very much. I hate sanding the stock on an old gun because I always want to maintain as much character as possible but in this case I think it will be necessary to bring it back to any kind of decent shape.
Before I do anything I wanted opinions on whether I should repair/refinish the stock or since it is a old gun leave it as it is and just try to clean it up. I know when trying to maintain collector value, any major stock work usually hurts the value more than it helps but in this case I don't think the gun is really sought after and the stock is just plain ugly.
Any and all opinions about refinishing vs leave as-is and about whether it has any collector value, would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
I recently took in a Stevens Model 39A, Bolt Action, .410 Shotgun as part of a settlement with someone who owed me some money. (Also got a beautiful 1939 Winchester Model 75 Target with original scope which was what I was really interested in, but...I digress)
From what I have gathered so far, the Stevens was only made from 1938 thru 1945 but is not really worth a lot or particularly sought after.
The metal and action seem to be in pretty decent shape and I think will clean up OK. The stock however is in pretty rough shape. My first instinct is to strip, repair and refinish the stock. Some of the scrapes and gouges are pretty deep. I would try and steam out everything I could before sanding but in this case I don't think that is going to take care of very much. I hate sanding the stock on an old gun because I always want to maintain as much character as possible but in this case I think it will be necessary to bring it back to any kind of decent shape.
Before I do anything I wanted opinions on whether I should repair/refinish the stock or since it is a old gun leave it as it is and just try to clean it up. I know when trying to maintain collector value, any major stock work usually hurts the value more than it helps but in this case I don't think the gun is really sought after and the stock is just plain ugly.
Any and all opinions about refinishing vs leave as-is and about whether it has any collector value, would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance,