That's great, Robert . . . assuming Beagle wants to do the work himself and has the skills to do so. But that's a bit like me assuming that you can translate passages from "Madame Bovary" into English. I can, but I would not assume that anyone else can, without knowing something about their background in French.
And where'd you get the wood? Carve the stock yourself, from scratch? Can you point Beagle to a source of semi-inletted Darne/Charlin stocks, assuming he wants to go that route?
It's still a question of what's out there on the used market with a stock already attached, for how much, compared to how much the wood would cost (assuming there's a source of semi-inletted stocks, like you can get for most American break-action doubles), whether Beagle can do it himself, etc. A few years back, in Dijon, I could've bought a very basic Charlin 16 but very nice condition--sorry, but nicer than yours--for about $800. Wish I had.
