Not sure I agree with the logic behind the patina and age being the reason for the stock color. H&H, WR, Rigby were the high end rifles even in 1900 the prices were out of the commoners reach. Mauser however made several grades of sporter with differing grades of finish both wood and metal. The Mauser model C is an example it was a military M98 action and sometimes stepped barrel the stocks were plain and some had almost zero color but was the same straight grain English walnut.
And if the elite owners of the high end rifles had them maintained regularly wouldn’t that have slowed or stopped any finish deterioration?’And I’m sure there were more Military personnel using the British Sporters than rich aristocrats. And these military personnel used them a lot harder and had a lot less disposable income to send there rifles back to London from India or Africa for a touch up. Yet the finish color is the same. I’ve seen Rigbys that had been owned by English nobility that had the same color as one owned by a British officer in India. Why the same color? One rifle looks like it hasn’t been out of its leather covered trunk case the other looked like it had been thru hell, same color( on what finish remained on the working gun). The queen of England herself had a Rigby .275 built during WW2 it looks no different in color than a 100 other rifles?
Simply a case of people getting an idea in there head and believing it to be fact. I’ve owned Mausers that were over a hundred years old with oil finishes and in noway was the wood compromised from not being sprayed with some plastic finish in 1901. If you have convinced yourself the oil finish is a water sponge that’s fine. Explain the thousands of rifles that are still functioning just fine with a oil finish. Rifles that spent decades in hard use in India or Africa in all kinds of weather. I’m not talking about the plastic spray finished orange swirly rifle that you only take out of the gun safe when the humidity is less than 40% I’m talking about real working rifles that were in the field for months at a time for years. Real rifles with stocks shaped and fitted for iron sites and quick handling,
Not overweight straight combed cartoon colored rifles with giant scopes an inch of rubber on the butt just to be able to hit a deer at 100 yards lol. I don’t need a time machine to know what a rifle looked like when it was built I already own a few. Find a real one with some finish missing or take the stock off and look inside the inlet time is not what caused the color period.
