Trapdoors in gunstores?

[Sunray]

"...what is the mindset of gunstore owners..." Biggest thing is that it costs time and money. However, collectors do not want stuff that has been touched in any way. Even "a little cleaning" seriously decreases the value.
"...Naval Jelly or a wire wheel..." Former will remove any remaining blued finish right to bare metal. The latter can ruin a collector piece unless it's a fine brass wire wheel and used with a light touch. Still considered to be refinishing that drops the value though..

[Stephan]

Collectors don't want rusted Trapdoor rifles...neither do shooters...may as well make bar-stools from them

[Dick Hosmer]

Sorta depends on just exactly what that rusted TD is! That is where knowing what you are looking at floats to the top.

Granted, a bog-standard M1873 in the 200,000 to 300,000 range is probably the least desirable, except to shooters.

[Stephan]

Yep...I suppose exactly what the Trapdoor is would be a determining factor. But then...for the most part..the only Trapdoors I've seen are M1873/M1884 rifles(with the exception of one pretty nice carbine). No cleaning rods either(the carbine I looked at was rod-less too)....not sure just where all the cleaning rods go?...Sold separately I suppose

[Merc]

[QUOTE=psteinmayer;457286]I see them occasionally in Cabelas "Gun Library." Sometimes they're nice and priced right. Most times, they are hopelessly OVER priced, and look like something the cat dragged in! I looked at a Krag recently and the bore looked like it hadn't been cleaned since the Boxer Rebellion... like 50 miles of bad road!!!

The interesting thing is... sometimes, all they need is a little cleaning and a little love.[/QUOTE/]

Offering uncleaned antique guns for sale must reflect the seller's desire to allow the antique to remain untouched fearing cleaning will detract from the value. They aren't taking into account that a large portion of the buyers of antique military rifles are looking for clean shooters.

I saw an add online from my local Cabela's for a particular rifle that I'd been shopping around for and was surprised to see a large variety of antique military rifles in their Gun Library. Most of their prices were above average for the rougher examples and full retail plus for the nicer examples but they were willing to deal and listen to offers.

Big problem: All the rifles I saw were dirty, really dirty or downright filthy which made it difficult to judge the condition of the bore, chamber, etc. I'm not interested in buying a wall hanger.

I bought the rifle I was seeking and found it to be minty once I brought it home and thoroughly cleaned it.

Merc

[Mark Daiute]

Couple years ago I was at Cabelas. Three Cadets. One was a shortened rifle, one was a late cadet with slingswivels. Then there was this third Cadet. 1873. It happened to have a Buffington sight. Cheapest of the three. Nice solid condition, not pristine but nice, not messed with.

I gotta be honest I swapped out the Buffington sight with the 1873 sight and some slotless screws. It is a dead ringer for the cadet on Dick Hosmer's sight and only about 30 digits away IIRC from his. Even the cartouche looks like the one on Dick's sight, kinda lightly struck. Man I love that rifle and it is a good shooter. Point is, it was the cheapest Trapdoor there. The least expensive trapdoor there, with one exception.

Let's talk about that exception. It was a beautiful, near pristine 1884 with nice bluing throughout and good color on the breechblock. Great Cartouche and..... a stock cut off at the middle band. My buddy needed that stock for a psuedo carbine so that's where that went. I got a replacement stock from Al Frasca the quality of which matched the rest of the rifle and even the cartouche matched. I think that rifle cost me 350 at Cabelas. Other than that my experience with Trapdoors in Gunstores have bordered on the absurd. Beat up old rifles that Al would not even take in that were up for sale at double the price.