Now im not citing anything historical here but sure why not reuse good parts.
If a part fails, lock stock or barrel, reuse whats still serviceable and keep it going.
Think of when the US moved to caps, we didnt throw away the flinters, we converted them. Or after the civil war with the Allin conversions. We didnt used to be so wasteful as we are today and im sure the Brits and others were the same.
Just my thoughts.
Historic documentation backs up your thoughtful intuition in two major ways.
1. Repair/reclamation of Arms "in the field" by Regimental Artificers/Armorers. My first job in the modern Marine Corps was as a "Small Arms Repairman" or Armorer. The reason I mention this is because all the people in the Armed forces who do this job (no matter what their service calls it) have to be trained and be proficient in fixing a rather large number of small arms, BUT we were/are not gunsmiths, only "parts changers." In extended combat, we might have to cannibalize downed weapons systems to keep other systems going and sometimes come up with rather bizarre "field fixes" to keep those systems going, though we were not allowed to do major modifications.
British Regimental Artificers/Armorers had far fewer types of weapons to work on, BUT they were required to do more "gunsmithing" type of services to the arms while on campaign, especially when stationed far from home, as in the American Colonies or when on duty/war on the European Continent. Looking at the lists of tools sent with them, they were required to cut off barrels that burst or failed from BOTH ends, because some of tools sent were "britch taps" or taps to cut breech plug threads into barrels they had to cut off. (Somewhere I have period documentation they did this in America, though I can't quickly lay my hands on it right now.) I don't think they made new stocks when they did that, but glued in pieces of wood to stocks to fill gaps when needed. They cut off barrel muzzles when damaged or when arms were authorized to be shortened by local Army Commanders and we have documentation for that in the FIW and much less in the AWI. They usually had to move the front sight backwards on the forearm as well as any nose bands or nose caps on the weapons. There was no such thing as interchangeable parts to be a "parts changer" so the spare parts sent had to be hand fitted and hardened/annealed by them after fitting, when required. They also took arms that were damaged in service and if not repairable, would sometimes use the barrels or locks or stock furniture on other arms needing repairs. Now they weren't true gunsmiths because they did not MAKE barrels or lock parts, but came darn close to that level.
2. Reclamation of parts from old or damaged weapons by British Ordnance Artificers at the Tower or Dublin Castle. The brass furniture from broken arms, that could not be economically repaired, was NEVER sold as scrap. Instead, those parts were stripped and melted down to make new pattern parts. Brass was WAY too costly for most of the 18th century to have just sold it for scrap.
Damaged or sometimes foreign made Long Land Barrels were OFTEN used to make shorter barrel Sea Service Muskets. The best example of this I know of came from all the 15,000 "Dutch" Arms and 36,000 "Dutch" Barrels British Ordnance had been forced to buy in the first three years of The War of Jenkins's Ear in 1739 that morphed/continued into the War of the Austrian Succession from 1742-48 and known as King George's War here in North America. The winter of 1739-40 was so cold in England that it FROZE all the streams/rivers that gave water power to trip hammers and grinding wheels. So there was NO barrel production and a lesser amount of lock production at the very beginning of that war when they needed new arms production the most.
The 10,000 "Old Muskets" British Ordnance sent to the colonies in the FIW after Braddock's defeat almost certainly were from the 15,000 Dutch Muskets mentioned above. However, British Ordnance used all the barrels from those more damaged Dutch Muskets and damaged English made muskets with those Dutch barrels, to make shorter barrel Sea Service Arms well into the 1760's.
OK, so what did they do with the damaged Iron Barrels or pieces of barrels and Iron lock parts that could not be repaired? (They DID NOT throw away even the cut off pieces of damaged barrels.) If they could use them for something else by re-forging the Iron parts, they did, or sold what they couldn't use for scrap iron.
OK, what about damaged or old pattern stocks they could no longer use? Remember, these were made mostly from European Walnut with some exceptions of Dutch made stocks, but not always. I can't document this, but having studied British Ordnance, I bet they used the wood for hand tools and tool handles and only burnt the unusable wood in fireplaces to keep the workers warm in winter.
There is a great story about an Ordnance Worker who got caught taking three broken bayonets from the Tower in I think the 1760's. When hauled in front of the magistrate, he claimed they were of no value to the Ordnance Department because they were broken and his intention was to make some tools from the steel blades, though the story does not say those tools were going to be used at the Tower. The Tower actually did use broken bayonet blades to make some hand tools at times, but since he got caught outside the workshops, the Magistrate fined and jailed him.
Bottom line, British Ordnance had one heck of a program of parts reclamation or reuse.
Gus
