Treating a high condition gun with white gloves is one thing but to treat a working gun with white gloves is over the top. Why do a full restoration on a gun that should be a great shooter? Just to make one more closet queen? This gun will never be mint again but should make a great shooter for several lifetimes of enjoyment.
Your point about people screwing up good guns just because they own them is very valid. They do not care about the fact that these guns are almost a work of art or history that should be valued instead of a few pounds of wood and metal that they can beat, bent or cut up as they get inspired. I hate cut barrels more than cut stocks and polished metal instead of thinning case colors or worse a torched gun for fake case colors. Nasty not art.
