Bitsa's - What to do with them?

[Rumpelhardt]

Just a question on this subject. When you speak of "Bitsa's" are you referring to rifles who have had major parts of the barreled action like bolts and barrels modified or changed by us slimy civilians or would even replacing wood and small parts that got butchered or removed put it in this category?

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[jss]

Just a question on this subject. When you speak of "Bitsa's" are you referring to rifles who have had major parts of the barreled action like bolts and barrels modified or changed by us slimy civilians or would even replacing wood and small parts that got butchered or removed put it in this category?

Good question. I can only go on what I have learned so far from experienced collectors and the opinions vary enormously. A "bitsa" from what I understand is one that has literally been put together(presumably in the civilian world only, because if it was done by the military it would been stamped and be "collectable" and be of significant interest???) from parts lying around or salvaged from other defunct rifles, in order to create a rifle that effectively did not exist before.
Apparently this is quite common practice and as long as it is safe and sound then that's fine. But as far as collecting is concerned, it is seems only to be worth the " sum of it's parts" (but perhaps valuable as a de-act??).
Perhaps it would be a good idea to have a system of markings for civilian gunsmiths to add to the military ones in order to retain "service history". I imagine a rifle going through FTR might have had many parts exchanged but presumably with barrel,action, bolt, magazine, all from the same maker??????. Or would that make many FTR'd rifles "Bitsa's"?.

What exactly does make a rifle NOT interesting to a collector? I suppose the rarity of all matching original condition means collectable but perhaps for some of us the" bitsas" are MORE interesting and certainly cheaper. They are also perhaps very necessary in order for the collectable ones not to get worn out and turned into guess what.

Experienced comment for the uninitiated please!.

[Gingercat]

What exactly does make a rifle NOT interesting to a collector? I suppose the rarity of all matching original condition means collectable but perhaps for some of us the" bitsas" are MORE interesting and certainly cheaper. They are also perhaps very necessary in order for the collectable ones not to get worn out and turned into guess what.

I made the mistake of agreeing to buy a rifle after just viewing images by email. It looked great in the photos, but on handling the rifle in person, the first thing that made me cringe was the large 'DP' stamps in the wood (none on the metal). It was a classic 'bitsa' - 1904 dated receiver, with a replacement BSA (South African) barrel. The nose cap had a different serial to the receiver - so did the rear sight. The bolt matched, but was obviously a replacement, with modern stamping font. Obviously a dealer or civilian owner had made up the rifle from various parts and used 'DP' furniture (complete with volley sights) from another rifle to make it look authentic.

As a shooter great (headspace was fine) and the barrel had a very good bore. As a 'collectable' rifle, no value to me at all! I sold it pretty quickly to someone less concerned about originality than me and fortunately got my money back. Lesson learnt - I always inspect weapons in person first now, before agreeing to buy anything!