Ever look at a gun and just wondered what that person was thinking or smoking when they decided what to do to it? Looked at a Fox CE today that I just had so many issues with it and I can't decide if it is just me being picky or if my issues are what passes for normal around here.
The gun was a 12 ga. with a straight stock and beaver tail for end. The gun was converted to a straight grip and you could easily see where the extension had been added to the trigger guard. I could do better welding at ten. The shape was not right and looked to flat and too wide. The engraving was not very good on the new portion.
Then the barrels had been rust blued but all the lines were just so soft, almost loosing definition. At first I thought they had been buffed but I think they got pitted too much while being rust blued. Case color was 10% in protected area on the receiver. Screws were not buggered so much as the slots had been widened to fix that. But most of the engraving on them was wiped out.
I was not impressed with the restock job or the choice of wood.
The butt stock was not well inlet and the shape was just off. The checkering was too fine on the butt stock with terrible execution. The fore end checkering looked decent and fit was a decent looking job until I looked at the amount of glass bedding used. Looked like a bondo job almost. But the worst problem of all was that they had used a feather Black Walnut blank and did a crappy job of layout instead of finding a decent English Walnut blank. I thought it might have been a original for end but that glass bedding job never left the factory like that and Black Walnut just was wrong. I guess they might have used Black Walnut near the end or at a customers request. I just never saw one on a C grade.
Mechanically it was fine but such a mess. I started to count up what I would have invested into it if I bought it and tried to straighten it out. The bill just keep growing and growing. I started with the most obvious problem of needing to restock in in a decent English Walnut blank. But then figured I would need to have all the engraving picked up. New screws made and timed. Then the metal all refinished. So I asked what price he was thinking of and he hit me with a 99% BlueBook value. It was after all in such high condition. I just handed it back and said way too rich for my blood which seemed to make him feel good.
So is it just me? When you look at a gun do you almost feel sorry for what some of them have endured? And I refuse to try to educate sellers when they have such a basket case. They just get mad or defensive about stuff. I try to be polite and wash my hands of the gun. Hand it back and say nothing to encourage them but also nothing to insult them or their crappy gun.
