To restore this gun to a shooter will take a new stock I suspect. Just look at the drop in that stock. Few here can shoot one well with that much drop. I know the repair is old and has held up for many years but it looks like sh-t on a stick. So as a shooter you could save maybe half of the blank price and get a decent blank for a shooter. Still will cost to have it fit and finished.

The barrels I hope can be saved to save the damascus barrels but if they are .020 and pitted, even that may be a stretch. Internal and external pittign scares me in a gun with .020 barrels. Might be able to have it lined. Have to send it out and have them decide if it can be done.

If you get rid of most of the external pitting on the reciever and get the metal back into decent shape you are looking at big time labor cost. A very few people can do that work themselves most have to pay others to do it for them. So you save a few hundred by not haveing it case color done again. Old guns look better natural to me anyways.

Now this gun shows you why they fake low grade guns into high grade guns. Because it is easier to upgrade than to restore a badly worn or abused gun. Take a G grade of the same date and you could make it into a Optimus for about what this one will cost to fix. Bigger investment in engraving might make me wrong but I would rather try an upgrade than a full restoration of this gun.

I suspect they have the estimate rather lower than that gun will bring even in the shape it is in. Common auction house trick is to set low estimate prices in hope of getting several bidders hoping to get a bargin. If two get carried away in the bidding fever the gun might go for twice the estimate. We all have seen strange things at auctions. If I had not just sunk several thousand dollars into a equipment upgrade, I might be one of those fools myself.