A couple years ago I found a slick little Webley & Scott BLNE, mfg. in 1909-10, 12 bore REALLY cheap. Alas, the barrels were 28", cut back from what I'd guess were the original 30". A smidgen of choke remains, .004 and .004. The buttstock had issues as well, turned out the nearly 2" stock extension was evidently added by the same gorilla that had the bbls. cut, length of pull was nearly 16"! Removal of the stock extension and addition of a recoil pad returned LOP to 14.5" and made a sweet little (6# 3 oz.) close range bird gun that has become my favorite for ptarmigan, blue grouse and preserve pheasants. With 7/8 oz. of #7's, handloaded with plastic shotcups, I've found this old girl to be deadly out to 30-35 yards. My questions:
1. Why in the world did the "gorilla" cut the barrels in the first place?
2. If my experience isn't unusual, why are most people so down on cut barrels? I understand the alterations severely diminished the gun's value but I buy to hunt, not collect. Not to mention, I doubt the Webley would have had any serious collector value in original configuration.
