Bore Condition

[WESTbury]

As I am new to this forum, I'm curious as to how relevant is bore condition when considering acquiring an antique long rifle? I tried doing a Search on the forum but got many "bore" hits and many "condition" hits and only a few "bore condition" hits.

[Eric Kettenburg]

It doesn't mean anything at all unless you intend to use it as a shooter.  Very few American arms would fall into this category, at least very few of construction prior to the mid 19th century.  European arms are a bit of a different animal, as there are good numbers of 18th century euro guns that have seen very little use and can still function as shooters if you so choose.

[rich pierce]

Some or most guns originally flintlock are not shootable. Some have the barrels “stretched” (an extra length welded on) and those are for sure not shootable.

[WESTbury]

Thanks guys.

Without trying to see like a pompous know-it-all, if anyone on this Forum ever needs help with Springfield Armory flintlock muskets, I may be able to help. You can check out what I've done in Dennis Glazener's Aug 1 posting in Recent Books. I'm far from an expert, but I know a few things in that field.

[Seth Isaacson]

Here's my take on it based on my experience: bore condition matters little generally speaking when you are talking about antique American long rifles since most of the guns have pretty awful bores and are purchased as artifacts and art more than as guns by many collectors. An original, particularly attractive, signed gun with a poor bore is still going to bring good money, but if that same gun had an excellent bore, it would probably bring more but not probably as much more as if it was the type of gun someone might buy and actually shoot. However, alterations such as "stretched" barrels like Rich mentioned certainly impact value.