Those are way nice guns. That one was made in '57. I could be wrong on this but just between you and me that gun was prolly shot a bunch and you were told a story. The breech face would tell the truth on that. Dry firing don't need a butt pad like that either, and it was poorly done besides from the look of it. It appears to have some massive downpitch too, but that could just be the pic. That would certainly slow the shooting urge tho. Maybe the same "gunsmith" that did the pad did some fixin' in the action.
The good news is that someone who actually knows what they're doing could likely make it right.
I saw one recently could be the twin of that one. Had some dents in the top bbl IIRC and the proud devil that was selling it still wanted around $7K. It was really difficult not to blow snot laughing.
JMO of course YMMV
WtS
Last edited by Wonko the Sane; 11/20/09 01:56 AM.