I say we let people chase factory made Mauser sporters for another decade or so while we keep scrounging for these old jewels. "Barney Worthen? Huh...never heard of him. But I'll take it off your hands for, oh...$500."
I actually had that experience a few years ago at a major gun auction. The catalog did not mention the maker of a custom Springfield. While I was trying to read the tiny marking on the barrel, one of the employees of the auction house said "Oh, that is just the moron who used to own it!" What it said was "Barney Worthen, San Francisco, Cal."
