It's a well-known fact among 70 lovers that there's a lot of the above...George Madis once told me he abandoned the idea of writing a book on 70s because he did not want to upset many of his friends who thought they had good guns hich were, in fact, fakes....
A well known friend of mine who values 70s for the Blue Book told me of a guy (old timers know of or about him-I think he did time for defrauding some people) who showed up at his shop years ago with a trunk full (6) 9mm barrels made by a fellow in Michigan-all for sale, of course...all perfectly aged in appearance and identically roll-stamped like the real McCoy....that turned me off from ever owning a 9mm....especially when stumbling across one at an OGCA show for sale by a guy from.....Michigan!
I did buy a few nice guns from a guy in NE PA years ago whose wife's uncle had worked in the Winchester Custom Shop....I was always a little suspicious even though a Winchester IS a Winchester, at least then it was, in my mind...
Many of us know the obvious ne'er do wells who deal, or have dealt, in bad guns...to my mind there's plenty of fakes floating around...I recall talking with a very talented gunsmith a few years ago who made a respectable amount of dough restoring 70s that were very hard to determine were not original when he was done with them....I got so jaded I gave up and sold off dozens I had amassed over the years....
Roger Rule's book is full of enough questionable material that can result in a well-heeled budding collector to quickly be separated from some serious money if caution and restraint along with the advice of an experienced 70 expert are not employed...one of the biggest is the belief that many SGs were not stamped on the barrel underside. Winchester's attention to manufacturing detail, even in the days of pre-CNC equipment, resulted in the easy interchangeability of barrels.
I could ramble on...provenance with unusual rifles is rare indeed on 70s...would like to hear others' thoughts...
