Went into a small gun store which sells mostly pistols. There was a Greifelt boxlock in the used rack between the black semi auto rifles which I asked to see. Gun was handed to me and I asked if I might remove the forend and barrel to determine what the gun's proofs had to tell me. "No- policy is we don't allow that". So I explained it was necessary if he wanted to sell the gun and told him I would buy it if I hurt it. Wood and barrel had been refinished, the wood was well done including the checkering. The fully engraved receiver was silvered out but the engraving was not worn yet, just a touch of case in the protected areas. So far so good. The left barrel was a mess on the exterior. Whoever blued it had tried to file out a deeply corroded area, developing a very obvious swale above the end of the forend and there was still significant pitting in the deepest part. Thought it might have been a dent but the bores didn't reflect that. Muzzle looks cut as the walls were pretty thick with edges sharp and square, solder only to fill the wedges, and the barrel length was in between centimeter lengths, sling swivels cut off. Barrels did not ring and the lower rib needed relaid. Really dissappointed as it was otherwise priced nicely to be a great shooter. Of course the shop owner had no wall thickness, bore diameter or chamber length gauges. It was marked for 12ga without chamber length noted so probably 65mm. Nice light 12 gauge. After the owner's wife recognized me as one of her regular customers and unclenched his jaw, we had a reasonable discussion about who could measure that wall thickness over the dent and the chambers to be sure he was selling a safe firearm. He decided that if he takes in a double gun again he might want to have it evaluated first. Would have been a nice step up from the normal JP Sauer due to the better engraving, now it is just a too expensive project gun looking for a set of barrels.
