doublegunshop.com - home Forums Thread Like Summary - Current sleeve cost.

Looking at a gun which needs to be sleeved. Anybody have a current suggestion who to have it sleeved by and what the normal cost is now? I would like to get it sleeved, before shipping it here. I do not know who to use, as the couple contacts I had, have retired and one I think is dead. For all I know they were sending them out to someone else in the trade and acting as a middle man, not that that would matter to me. £3,000 was the last quote I had for a top level job, with two options of £2,000 as a "decent" job and £1,350 as the "economy" version. Is that still the going rate?

There are three guns in the Holt's upcoming sealed bid, I would love to buy, which all really need to be sleeved. I have thought about just using Briley tubes in them and shooting them as is but the extra weight would change them too much I am afraid. I do not like near eight pound small bores. They are not in the stock, action and cut barrels category yet, but very thin walls, black powder proof, with pits and dents, that are in the .016 or under range. To me that says sleeve me or pass. I might try saving one of them if I could get a handle on the sleeving cost.

My favorite listing is that endless money pit we all think would be cool do, but which in real life you hate before you ever get it finished. About the only thing not needing attention are the hammers and maybe side plates. Barrels are a mess, stock a complete mess, off face, trigger guard slightly bent, you can just see the piles of money needed to put it right. That £250-500 gun soon becomes a $3-4,000.00 gun or twice that much and that could buy a very nice gun, without the need for so much of an overhaul. But still it is such a great looking money pit.;)

Sleeving doesn’t always kill the value. See lot 1556 at Holt’s a 16 bore Beesley SLNE with 26 inch barrels sleeved in 1970 (when the Proof House was still insisting on stamping SLEEVED on the outside of the barrels) estimated at £700 to £900.

Hammer price £5,200 so £6,760 to get it out of the room!

Another recent example Lady Meux’s 28 bore BIW Purdey hammer gun.

I know that exceptions don’t disprove the rule, which is that at auction a sleeved gun will generally cost a fraction of the cost of sleeving and may therefore be a very good bargain.

I have noticed that at least one of the regular contributors to the Game and Gun pictures seems to have every satisfaction with his SLEEVED British boxlock, and his pheasants do not seem any less dead.

SKB

Blacker's maybe?

Johnson's(barrel browner here) owns the newly revived John Manton and is building new guns as well as specializing in blacking and browning. If they are sleeving too I did not know that.

We do not sleeve ourselves but we do take the work in, you can still get this work done in the UK but several guys who used to do it are no longer doing it so prices are increasing. At present we are blacking, browning and relaying ribs in house, we also cover dents polish bores choke work etc. combining this with the new builds keeps us very busy. in the not too distant future we will be looking to start taking on a few apprentices so maybe we will look sleeving in the future.

I will will put you in touch with a top man in London for sleeving, basic cost is 2500 gbp. New ribs, re-joining, engraving can add additional money. PM in bound.

I have another client heading his way as well.

Don't listen to our resident Debbie Downers, life is too short. Buy the gun or the puppy is my take. Looking at adding a Setter to the crew myself.

Then the obvious solution is to buy an old crippled Setter, and then spend 2500 GBP or more on Veterinary bills attempting to fix it.

I agree with Mark and Ted. It is very seldom intelligent to put thousands of dollars into attempting to rehabilitate a $250- $300 beater. I like the idea of getting a relative bargain by doing some repairs or refinishing on a gun. But putting a lot of time, money, and effort into a worn out tomato stake is just stupid.

I just found out my contact that was sleeving 6 months ago is no longer offering the service though he is inquiring with a friend who may be able to help out. Please keep us informed, I get inquires from time to time and am happy to point them in your direction if you do decide to offer sleeving.