Frankenguns

[Ragle Jnr]

Given manufacturers habit of using up parts, so called transistional models, and the age of guns where anything may have been replaced, unless the item is very rare then I would happily swap action and stock.
I guess the pivotal questions would be age and rarity, I couldn't do anything with the Haenal 27 that featured in another thread!
David

[Jerry Cornelius]

Given manufacturers habit of using up parts, so called transistional models, and the age of guns where anything may have been replaced, unless the item is very rare then I would happily swap action and stock.
I guess the pivotal questions would be age and rarity, I couldn't do anything with the Haenal 27 that featured in another thread!
David

The habit of using up parts etc is exactly what makes me hesitant about this. If you come across a gun with a mix of older and newer features, is it evidence of what the factory were doing in the 50s, or is it someones shed tinkering last year? And then there is guns returned to factory that were fitted with later parts.

I guess it doesn’t matter much for guns where there are thousands still in circulation but I feel it’s a bit iffy otherwise

[look no hands]

I'm always swapping stocks and barrels about on my Mercury's (I have that many now) but I do have a lovely unmolested example of the rifles I love in my collection (Merc S /Challenger/Airsporter S etc).

In my eyes if it keeps them shooting then so be it.

Pete

[Abasmajor]

Functionality is also very important to me and I would have no problem with replacing minor parts that affect this even if not original. I do however always keep the failed part in a little plastic bag with the gun to maintain its history in my possession anyway. I would prefer not to change major parts or anything for purely cosmetic reasons even on an identical model. Original or even reproduction spare parts for some of these old guns are getting harder to find however and consequently I find myself buying doner examples in poor condition just for spares. It still pains me to do this though, but other than getting replacement parts made which would be cost prohibitive and obviously not from the original manufacturer there is often no alternative.
Brian

[Rikimaru]

Any collector of any vintage machine, be it car's, bike's, guns etc faces the same conundrum. What is original?

Let's be honest totally original is hard to find. For example that nice Webley MK3, does it count as original condition if the spring has been replaced?

This is the issue and the same issue arises with cars. Restoration of cars falls into various categories, full restoration, sympathetic restoration, sympathetic restoration with modern parts & original restoration with as many original parts as possible & the holy grail of original factory built (no replacement parts, even tyres) restoration.

Machinery by its nature suffers wear & tear. If for example a barrel latch wears & you replace it with an original manufacturer part then some will argue it's original but others will argue it's no longer in original as the day it was sent from the factory condition.

Same goes for swapping parts between the same model/mark/year of gun. You will get collectors who will never touch frankenguns because in their eyes they are not as they left the factory & that is what matters. Is that an unrealistic point of view? I would say yes it is unrealistic.

Most airguns need replacement parts at some point & unless you have provenance that 100% proves the gun has never had any work or replacement parts then you are inevitably going to get a non-original gun but as long as the parts are model/year authentic I don't see what the issues is with building/salvaging a good authentic parts built gun from guns that are damaged or beyond salvaging.

Using decent examples to build a really good example is not good practice though as decent examples need preserving.