[beforeobamabans]

Serial no. 7G over 77xx which appears to mean 1967 Light 12. It's Belgian made, rib vent barrel, very low miles. It has general light pitting and a rather severe chip on the bottom of the butt end of the stock that also chipped the FN butt plate. A quick search turns up a few authentic (?) stocks for around $200 each.

I'm not much of a shotgun enthusiast although I can appreciate this gun's value for HD. What do you shotgun experts think I should do with this gun? That chip in the otherwise cherry woodwork really bums me out.

 

[fiasconva]

Have you tried searching at shotgunworld.com? You may find a deal there. If you don't want to restore it yourself you can also advertise it there.

 

[beforeobamabans]

This chip (it's worse than a chip but I don't know how to describe it) just ruins it for me. If I could find a new stock and butt plate for it, I could live with the slight pitting, for now anyway.

 

[MrMurphy]

Perfectly servicable gun, though not 'pretty' it's a shooter.

I knew a guy who had an Auto-5 that cracked the original stock after 25 years service.

He found a spare barrel somewhere, had it trimmed down and put a factory synthetic stock on it, tossed a shell holder on the stock and turned it into his wife's bear gun for when they were in Alaska. He'd go hunt/fish and she'd putter around the cabin. She had five slugs loaded and five buck on the stock ready to roll.

Good shooting gun too.

 

[Big Bird]

Its not a particularly collectible piece and as a hunting shotgun its limited these days by its lack of choke system and ability to shoot 3" steel waterfowl loads. Besides all that a full on restoration ruins its value from a collection standpoint anyhow. So there's no real point in trying to keep it all original looking.

If what you are describing is a chip in the toe of the buttstock that's fairly common and easily fixed by epoxy splicing in new wood, reshaping and refinishing. No need for a new stock and shouldn't be expensive. Since you said the butt plate is also chipped I'd just say have the smith cut the stock to fit you and install a rubber recoil pad like a Pachmeyer Decelerator or a Kick-eez pad. If he cuts off an inch or so for the added length of the pad he may not even have to splice in new wood on the toe of the stock.

A full on re-blue of the barrel is going to be $150 or more depending on who does it and the amount of prep that will need to go into the metal (how badly is it pitted?)

You can have it Cerakoted for a lot less money and it will look OK but also never rust again.

To replace the stock with a new one, buttplate, refinish the wood and re-blue the gun you are looking at over $400. To cut/repair the stock and install a recoil pad and Cerakote the barrel might run $150. At the end of the day you will still only have a gun worth $450-500...maybe.

 

[beforeobamabans]

Thanks Bird, just what I was looking for. I don't hunt so the plan for this gun is a few range trips to get operation and ammo dialed in then HD service. so it will not be shot a lot.

What's your recommendation on HD ammo? Can this gun get by with low recoil buck or will it require HV? This gun has two recoil settings so I'm hoping I can get reliable operation with low recoil. I realize this can be problematic with some autos.