Howdy y'all, there's a mountain rifle nearby that I'm considering picking up. It was built in 1984 by the late D.R. Hopkins for the father of the seller, possibly one of the last ones built down in Tennessee. Feels really good, but it could definitely use a wipe and oiling. I wanted to get you opinions on it before I move forward with purchasing.
The inletting is excellent around the lock and it wouldn't pop off easily otherwise I'd have gotten photos of the internals, didn't feel right tapping it out without proper tools to be safe. The seller said it has possibly never been taken apart and has probably 50> balls down the pipe. Bore looked kinda yucky (brown dried oil and dust) from the outside but it's been sitting in a safe a while and has some surface rust on the iron parts. I'll run some cleaning patches down it and borescope it before buying of course. But if it was put away dirty a decade ago it would probably be obvious if the barrel was wrecked right?
Anywho, what sort of value would one put on this? Does anyone recognize the lock? How annoying would a flint conversion be? Happy to soak up any and all information I can on this before I make a decision, I found two or three old threads but not much else.
The inletting is excellent around the lock and it wouldn't pop off easily otherwise I'd have gotten photos of the internals, didn't feel right tapping it out without proper tools to be safe. The seller said it has possibly never been taken apart and has probably 50> balls down the pipe. Bore looked kinda yucky (brown dried oil and dust) from the outside but it's been sitting in a safe a while and has some surface rust on the iron parts. I'll run some cleaning patches down it and borescope it before buying of course. But if it was put away dirty a decade ago it would probably be obvious if the barrel was wrecked right?
Anywho, what sort of value would one put on this? Does anyone recognize the lock? How annoying would a flint conversion be? Happy to soak up any and all information I can on this before I make a decision, I found two or three old threads but not much else.
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