Being out of production or even if the factory is closed forever, like Remington and several others, does not mean you should not buy them. The failure rate of these guns is very low. Their designs are well understood so there is no mystery how to repair them. Parts can be made or repaired so that is not that big of a deal. The real limiting factor to me is that we have so few good gun smiths and many of them are backed up with work. Gold and Red Labels did have a few issues with the barrels, but that is another matter. Just because you can fix a gun, sometimes it does not make sense to pour money into it. I already have that tee shirt and might be about to pay for another.
I am looking at buying a Young Repeating Arms shotgun which was made in 1902, factory was 1901-1903, so they are a rare gun. They are a push forwards, two shot, pump repeater. Problem is this gun needs to be sleeved by UK rules. I looked into a proof exempt certificate, but that is a non starter. If it is out of proof, I can not buy it and get it sent in for reproof. So my two choices are to buy it, cut for sleeving, with a chunk cut out of the barrel, or have it deactivated, with two slots cut in the barrel. Neither choice is good to me. Or just keep waiting for another one to come along. They made almost 300 of them am told.
I do not think that is going to be an easy to sleeve gun because of its design. Everything rides on the barrel under works and action which covers about ten inches of the barrel. No easy sleeve joint 4-6" down the barrel. I have two feelers out to people who might be able to see about sleeving as a option. But I am afraid the numbers just will not work out. Rare, does not mean valuable in this case. At best this is a gun worth $1,500-2,000. I could spend that much just getting it purchased and sleeved, then more to import.
