I bought a 20 ga Sterlingworth from a guy that said he got it from the daughter of a man that died many years ago. It was stored in the basement muzzle down in a soft gun case that had disintegrated. He told me the stock was cracked the gun didn't work and had some external pitting at the muzzle. I'm getting a pretty bleak picture of the gun but when he showed it to me it didn't look all that bad. I fixed the stock and strip cleaned it. Turns out the original owner had the gun reblued. The gunsmith that did it hot blued the entire gun and left all the parts in it when he did it. The frame now has a purple color to it. That was the reason the gun would not work. He did not go crazy with the buffing wheel either as every thing is sharp. I was concerned about the hot blue on the barrels but this blue job was done about 40 years ago and the barrels look very good to me. I thought when I started to shoot it that the ribs might come loose but after owning it for 10 years and putting a couple thousands of rounds thru it I think it is pretty sound and am not worried about it at this point. I guess it all depends on a number of different factors.
