Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors 1899 restoration

Speaking of Turnbull, what do think a Savage 1899 restoration by him would be worth? For example, take a perch belly 250-3000, 1915 vintage, close to becoming grey but in good mechanical shape. He refinishes the metal to original specs. Say the wood is ok and can be refinished with appropriate checkering. Also, re-case harden the lever. When completed it looks brand, 1915 vintage, new. If that gun was worth around $1,200 as is, disregarding what the restoration cost, what would it be worth when he's done? A minty 250-3000 would be worth what, say $3,500 plus. Would the Turnbull Savage be worth more, like some of his Winchesters seem to be. Just curious.

A Refinished Gun is as Such to most,not all.
Takes the value away. The value is for you and prehaps whom may appreciate it.

You'll most like spend to much and never get a return.
Just my opion.
Steve

+1

At a guess I'd say it's worth maybe 1/2 to 1/3 of what you'll sink into it. Good for family heirlooms where value isn't the price, but not a good investment otherwise.

Agree.

Agree x 2
The first two response's cover it quite well.

Worth ? ...... or how much would it cost ? ....... in my experience - World Class work , but it ain't cheap .






They did this one for me a couple of years back :

Kinda what I thought. Better to find original guns than spend a ton of dough on restoration. Nice looking lever though.

I have seen the same 86 Win. Turnbull restoration for sale for over a year and a half now. Beautiful rifle asking $4000.00 but no takers. In the meantime a couple of original 86's in very clean condition have flown off the shelf in the hi $3000.00 range. I think the message is no matter how good the work re-doing a collectable rifle is a no no.

I don't even agree with the family heirloom comment, in fact I am probably more against that than refinishing.

I inherited an 1893 Marlin that has a barrel that with over 4" cut off and a rough home-made front sight soft soldered on. It also has a lot off stock marks and wear from being carried in a scabbard on a horse. This was done by my Uncle in South Dakota during the depression and was done because hunting was a nesessity and not a sport to him then and the long barrel may have meant the difference between eating and starving. If I had this gun restored all the evidence of his touch and the evidence of the guns history would be lost. Most of what is worn on that gun was worn by my uncle and my father, if I had it restored all evidence of their touch would be gone - it would no longer be a family heirloom, it would no longer have the marks and wear that carried the evidence of the story's about it. Can you imagine this senario - I tell someone about the history of a gun and that my uncle carried this many miles on horse back just to have someone say - "funny the gun look's like new, like it's never been handled". That's my opinion of a refinsh.

PS my uncle sold the gun to my father when he moved to Wisconsin, he no longer had to hunt to survive and never did again - as I said his experience with hunting was not as a sport.

Gene