Most of the Irish contract rifles I have seen (about five) have the original blue finish - some but not all of the stocks have been sanded. On the other hand the Britishicon rifles with PP scopes I have seen have all been refinished and have sanded stocks. It appeared to me that the British refinished many of their rifles in the post WWI period and at least some of these rifles were used to fill the Irish contract (with BAS scopes) while the balance were new rifles. Some of the auction descriptions I have seen - including the rifle I bought several years ago were not accurate.