doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Huh? H&R A&D, belgian proor marks??

Actually Ted, I didn't look at the price or even read the ad copy. I took a quick look at the pics, and noted that it wasn't anything like the H&R A Grade I foolishly passed up back around 1992.

I saw the damage at the head of the stock, and the probable bolt repair through the stock cheeks, and the replacement barrels of course. I agree that $2000.00 is on the high side, even though these H&R doubles are very scarce in any condition. But Ed's price isn't nearly as outrageous as many guns I see on the internet. Here's one that caught my eye... a real overpriced roach:

https://www.gunbroker.com/item/1133955257

It is advertised as a Lefever D Grade, but is clearly stamped "E" on the water table. I messaged the seller to inform him it isn't a D Grade, but the listing has not changed. The forend is missing. It is heavily pitted externally. We don't know about the bores because the seller says he can't find a rod to run a patch through the bores. Light won't even pass through the left tube. And the buttstock is badly damaged and filthy. The stock is a fine example of how lead shot oxidizes and swells up when used to add weight to a buttstock. It keeps getting relisted at $1279.95 (plus $75 shipping) without so much as a nibble. I'd say it might be worth a gamble of $150.00 max as a parts gun.

Then there is the guy who recently dumped on Lloyd3's For Sale ad for his L.C. Smith here. He took it upon himself to give his own appraisal of value, which was much lower than Lloyd's asking price. Lloyd had factored his original purchase price, along with the costs he incurred having the gun serviced by a gunsmith, into his asking price. I confronted that guy about ruining and intruding into Lloyd's attempt to sell his gun, and I also noted that the same guy has several rather overpriced doubles lingering on Gunbroker. He defended himself saying he felt his own crazy high prices were realistic. But those same guns have been relisted without any bidding activity many times since, and he has not lowered his reserve prices a nickel. There are many other sellers who list their guns at full blown retail or higher, and there are also buyers who will foolishly pay sticker price for overpriced guns. I notice that Ed will negotiate, and he does seem to pay Dave when one of his guns is sold to someone who saw it here.

Having gone back to the Guns Int'l. ad for this H&R makes me even more convinced that Schaefer didn't build it, and probably only made a spare or replacement set of barrels for it. Actually Ed himself makes that case when he notes that this gun has a low serial number of 25 (along with that nice old H&R buttplate), and therefore was likely built in 1882. But then he notes that H&R held the U.S. license to build this A&D gun until 1885. So if it was built in 1882, then Schaefer could not have built it unless he was violating and infringing upon H&R's licensing rights... and also using H&R buttplates! Possible, but very unlikely. I guess I don't need to read Campbell's book after all.

I know how this will make Ed feel. I have a .300 Weatherby Mag. barreled action built on a commercial Mauser action that came from the estate of a gunsmith who died in 1963. The gunsmith's son told me it came from the early 1950's, a time when Roy Weatherby was in Southgate, Calif., and would barrel any action he felt was strong enough for his high intensity cartridges, including these Interarms Mausers. The barrel caliber stamp is in the correct Weatherby script, not simple block letters and numbers. I'm almost certain it is an original Southgate Weatherby, but I don't know how to prove that. If I could, it would almost certainly add to the value. But at this juncture, all I have is circumstantial evidence and wishful thinking.