One of the continent's top gunsmiths---Nick Makinson---shaves the barrels of my great old guns to make them more useful to me. When they come back to me they're as their makers wanted them to be: the right gun for my conditions.
I haven't changed anything on my VH F/F 12 because it's my secondary goose gun for those few times when my SKB 3-inch 20 IC/M isn't up to the mission. My Sterlingworth, Specialty, A&N, Francotte have had their bores changed.
In each case, as a gunner and low-pressure loader, those changes provided greater pleasure and value of the gun to me. To the eye, the American and European craftsmen who made them 80-90 years ago would see no difference.
In my view, it's gunners of nostalgia and appreciation of the old doubles who keep the spirit alive. We're not butchering anything. Having guns not useful at the back of a vault is preserving them unseen for history, worse than in a museum.
