Improving on the Past

It’s been sitting at the back of your gun safe, making you feel guilty every time you see its rust-pitted barrel and dinged-up stock. It could be your grandfather’s favorite quail gun, that first .22 your dad taught you to shoot with, or perhaps just an assortment of old pieces and parts that you think might be most of an old flintlock if you actually knew how to put it together. No matter what the elephant in your gun safe might be, the odds are that you want to do something to get it back into shape, but you’ve heard that you’ll harm the value of the firearm if you restore it. So what should you do?

“First, let’s be crystal clear that there’s a vast difference between a good quality restoration and substandard work,” explains Ed Stukbauer, who in 1965 founded Bauer Gunmakers Ltd. (and now does custom gunsmithing at The Range at Lake Norman in Cornelius, N.C.), and has a passion for restoring treasures of the past. “There’s no doubt that a bad blue job or poor stock work is going to harm the value of any firearm, so the first thing you want to be certain of is that the gunsmith you are entrusting to do the work has the experience and the ability to do the job properly. You will pay a price for higher quality, but it’s an investment that is well worth it.”

So what about harming the value? It’s generally agreed that extremely rare, one-of-a-kind pieces, or those whose value is associated with their visible wear and tear should not be touched. (No one with any sense, for example, is going to recommend buffing a rusty swastika off a WWII Luger.) Production guns, however, are generally fair game. “I always compare it to a classic car,” Stukbauer notes. “If you bought a 1955 Chevy Bel Air, never drove it, and kept it in pristine condition in your garage, it will be worth the most. If you left that same car sitting in your backyard exposed to the elements since 1955, to the point that it’s completely rusted away and has a bird’s nest in the engine, it’s not worth anything. If you take that rusted shell and give it a flawless restoration, taking care to maintain the original parts wherever possible, you’re going to vastly improve the value of what you have. Will it ever be worth as much as one kept under lock and key for more than 50 years? Probably not, but it all depends on who is buying and how badly they want it. Keep in mind, that in the vast majority of firearms restoration cases, we’re dealing with family heirlooms that are never meant to be sold. If you’re looking to make a quick buck by reselling this gun next week, this isn’t the route you should be considering.”

Which brings us to the question of intrinsic value. “At The Range at Lake Norman, we excel at handling very high-end and unique restorations from manufacturers such as L.C. Smith, A.H. Fox, and Parker Brothers. At the same time, many of the firearms we work on aren’t worth nearly as much from a strictly monetary standpoint. It may be an old Sears & Roebuck rifle that cost the client’s grandfather $25 back in the day and isn’t worth much more now. But from an emotional and family history perspective, that firearm may be priceless, because it’s the rifle that the client learned to shoot with and he wants to pass on to his son, or the one his father got his first deer with, or the rifle that has been handed down through four generations of a family, etc.”

However, just because the intrinsic value of a firearm isn’t as high as a collector’s piece, you need to remember that from a gunsmith’s perspective, it costs the same to work on a $100 shotgun as it does to work on a $10,000 shotgun. “The time involved in taking it down, prepping the metal and wood, and refinishing the piece is essentially the same. Now, there’s obviously more detail involved, and as a result, more hours and higher labor costs associated with checkering and engraving a high-quality firearm, but the basic blueing and wood finishing costs are the same. In some cases, it actually can cost more to work on a cheap firearm, because if it’s poorly made, it’s going to take longer to take apart, put back together and ensure that everything is functioning properly. Once you open it up, you may have to remake or repair parts that just weren’t built to last.”

In the end, let common sense and your personal attachment to the firearm be your guide, and stay within the bounds of good taste. “Don’t do anything off the wall to the firearm that it didn’t have initially,” Stukbauer advises. “Just like you wouldn’t put gold rims on a 1955 Chevy, you don’t want to put a pink anodized trigger on a Colt Python. Something way out of line is going to harm the value, while meticulously bringing it back to a state that is, in many cases, much better than original is going to transform the firearm from an eyesore into something you can be proud of. Tasteful additions like intricately engraved family initials will enhance the piece and make it more meaningful for future generations.”

1891 Marlin .22

This 1891 Marlin .22 was beautifully restored with aesthetic changes such as a bone charcoal color case hardened action, hammer, lever and buttplate and a hand-rubbed oil finish as well as functional improvements such as a new barrel liner.

 250 Year-Old Musket

This more than 250-year-old .36 caliber Pennsylvania squirrel rifle was used in the Revolutionary War Battle of Cowans Ford. Before Stukbauer restored this family heirloom, its whole lock was missing and it was in very poor condition. A meticulous process brought it back to its former glory.