About two years ago I bought a Lefever F grade, thumb opener, as a project gun. Barrels were badly pitted, out of round on the end and caked in crud. Worse was the metal and stock which had so much old finish it was black with build up. The the gun would not cock the right barrel. But crud can be a good metal and wood protector in my experience. The pits in the barrels might clean up, I will send the to Mike O for a gentle cleanup.
Well I got around to taking it apart today. Everything came apart easily and the stock was in very good shape with no cracks concealed inside. Off the soak for a few days. But then I saw what some cretin did to fix the cocking problem. He tried to bend the sear on the lock plate to compensate for the cocking rod which is worn. Then he got his nasty file out and whacked it a couple of times with that. Why? Fixing the cocking rod is the easy thing to do. Weld it up and dress it back. Even I can do that with very little effort. This idiot has screwed up the sear which will now need to welded up, shaped and then you still need to fix the cocking rod.
Most of the project guns I have had have needed previous "repairs" reversed before you can fix them right. I wish people would not try to fix so much stuff by doing some stupid quick repair because it is fast and cheap. You get what you earn and pay for.
