There are a number of Ideals for sale stateside currently, and I just thought I'd offer an observation or two if you find yourself in the market. Parts are readily available from the French auction site NaturaBuy, as some of you already know. What may be less known is something sadly endemic to Ideals, even those still in France. It is damage to the inletting near the base of the top strap "swell" or "bulb". It occurs when the gun is disassembled (or more correctly,
almost disassembled) by someone unfamiliar with Ideal disassembly. The two top tang screws should be slightly loosened, but
not removed: the lower/bottom screws are removed, trigger plate action removed, then the top tang screws removed. If you see this damage to the fragile top tang inletting on an Ideal, it has been taken apart, or the attempt made, by someone unfamiliar with them:
FWIW
Mike
