Well, Most Knowledgeable Elders, there looks to be a bad pit, the depth of a ballpoint tip or so, in the right side of the barrel. Being the only one of its kind, I'm relieved, but will be taking it to a 'smith I know for evaluation. In the event that it's deemed irreparable, unsafe, etc., what should I do for a replacement? I can't find anywhere with those hen's teeth No5 barrels. Should I just fill it with TIG, chop a No4 tube and re-barrel it? If I do that, it eould be taken in to a barrel maker and the original flutes cloned onto the replacement.

Seaspriter, I am going to be documenting all the things I'll be doing to the rifles and bagging the papers in the buttstock or folding them into de-greased oiles for each rifle.

Are you talking a thin coating of grease on the metal, the wood, or both, Captain? I got her as a hunting and target rifle, to put my father's No4, a 1970's sporterized job that just stripped her of her wood, thank Galena!, on the wall after resroring her. I'd still shoot it, but the No5 would be my moose-burger-getter, an Ishapore would come as backup.

A local manhood rite-of-passage, oddly enough, involved annoying a Griz to the pont it wanted to tear you limb from limb and killing it in a manner not to dissimilar to setting a spear against a charge.