doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Superposed Restoration / Upgrade

Bob:

Sounds like a wonderful idea and you'll have a gun to treasure when it's finished. I really like Superposed shotguns (own 3, a 12 gauge Lightning Trap 32 inch with a Broadway rib; a 20 gauge Pigeon Grade 28 inch with raised yellow and white gold pigeons inlaid into the receiver; a 20 gauge Grade 1 28 inch).

It's a real shame the Superposed isn't more highly valued in today's market than it seems to be. The handwork, particularly in the earlier ones, couldn't be duplicated for several times the price they bring today.

Please post photos of the project as it proceeds.

Rem

To rescue a salt gun is often a mission of love. Certainly not a money maker. Only two of your stock choices rise to being nearly worth the effort. English is always my first choice these days. You have figured out what you want and should enjoy the finished project. It amused me when you hear others act like turning a basket case into a pristine higher grade gun is wrong. They are the exact same gun with only a difference in factory finish levels and different wood grades. Do it and enjoy it. No hearse ever came with a luggage rack or trailer hitch and no reason to just let your money sit idle getting less interest than we got 50 years ago. Spend it, enjoy it. Leave a clear photo trail of what you had to do to fix Brownings bad decision to use salt cured wood. If they ever had lived along salt water they never would have made that decision.

X2

The only Superposed not valued in the marketplace is the plain 12 gauge field gun, in the gun shows that I frequent.
Small gauges and higher grades have lots of interest and high prices.

Uhhhh Ohhhh. Bob, the barking DoubleGun junk yard dog is probably going to brow beat you guys too since you said his project won�t be a moneymaker and that most of his stock blanks are inferior in quality, just like he did to me and Keith. Bottom line Bob, just what do you think a 28 ga super light Pointer upgrade is going to be worth when it�s all said and done?

Buzz, I could care less if Bob makes money on it. I didn�t say anything about making money. But if he does, by selling without deception, good for him. I don�t subscribe to the ethos of untouched originality. Bob is going to take a junker and perhaps turn it into something very nice. It�s a process I�ve been through a number of times and not just with guns. I�m looking forward to following the progress.

No more and no less.

You get what you earn. If some here don�t like the reaction their comments elicit, maybe they need to look in the mirror. If Bob is a junk yard dog, it�s probably because someone trained him. He doesn�t bark at or bite me.

Good evening KY Jon.
Let me preface this by saying I didn't undertake this project to make money. I want this gun to be a part of my modest cabinet.
I'll also say I have nothing but the utmost respect for you and your input.
I will however respectfully disagree with you regarding the moneymaking aspect of a saltwood restoration.
I've done it twice now and made a modest to handsome profit on both. They were graded subgauge Superposed and were purchased
at better than reasonable prices due to the same type of hysterical, irrational fear of these guns that the likes of buzz here demonstrates.

As you know, the two things that must be done to restore a saltwood gun.are new wood and metal rejuvenation.
What makes this project different is an additional pair of facets, extra barrels and engraving.
A second barrel set is just that. Much like extra features on a new car, you got to pay to play.
The value of an original set of Belgian 28 gauge barrels is what it is.
Just as $100 bills never go on sale, neither do Belgian Super 28 gauge barrels.
If you want the barrels, you pay the price. I consider them a tangible asset, money in the bank.

The only real value question is the engraving. I've always been intrigued by the Pointer mystique.
Back in the day, guys jumped over the Pointer and purchased the Diana. Today, scarcity yields value.
Having the engraving done by a world class (and original Belgian engraver) seemed like a pretty good risk.
Is it worth the extra coin, upwards of a third of the cost of this restoration? It is to me.
Could I bee the only one in the world who'll appreciate it? Doubtful.


I don't believe anyone, anywhere knows their way around a Superposed better that Art Isaacson. His work is impeccable.
If you add up all the if's and's and but's, I couldn't be more comfortable putting my hard earned money into his capable hands.
Combine Art's track record, Angelo's track record and the track record of Belgian Superposed, 28 gauge, Pointer's and I say "I'm betting on me".

Canvasback and all the rest with constructive critism, thank you.
Naysayers and Poo Pooers, the floor is yours.

You have been lucky or good to make money off saltwood guns. I never enter into a project and expect to turn a profit. I like projects for the outcomes, not for the resale value. In fact I rarely sell guns other than those I have sold lately at auction to trim down my pile so my wife and kids don't have to do it later. And to date I have sold only one or two project guns. The rest were low grade duplicates of guns I have several of.

I expect every gun maker who ever lived wished he could make guns to a higher finish level or fancier stocked gun than the market would bear. I constantly am reminded that makers were forced to bring out ever simpler, plainer, cheaper models to get more volume to stay alive. Fox would have been happy as a clam if his lowest graded gun was a C or higher. Graded guns were a blank canvas.

Your choice of engravers is perfect. It would be interesting what grade Browning was his favorite to engrave. Perhaps it was the Pointer. I look forwards of pictures of the finished project.

One thing for sure Bob you'll never see a picture of KYs...

Bet it doesn�t have a spiffy white line pad on it, like yours....


Best,
Ted