They put these on sale for $100 off and free shipping for the 4th of July and I took the bait and ordered one. I don't normally do this sort of thing sight unseen and even on sale it was still $225 which is a lot for a rifle that is probably never going to work. They tell you all sorts of worst case scenarios so you know not to expect much.
It arrived today and I have never been so afraid to open a cardboard box before. It came right at 3:45 and I just put it up against the wall and left the house. I had a good reason, my Astra 400 was delivered to Cabelas and I had to make a quick run for it before Bible School started at 6:30 but that's another story. Went direct to Bible School, got home at 8:45 and sat down to eat and watch TV. I have photo documented the box, which arrived in great shape and the packing which was excellent and the rifle as taken out.
It is complete. I can find no missing pieces. It appears to have an original cleaning rod which is not rusted to pieces. I attempted to take out two screws and they both came out easily. The bore is clear, not obstructed like many are. It has rifling but can't tell how much or how much of what is in there is dirt and how much is rust. The lever moves some, the loading gate moves some, the trigger is locked up. The exposed barrel looks great. It does look like pitting starts at the wood line. It is covered with old dirty grease that cruds up your hands real quick. It is very dry. The stock has no missing pieces but I can see three cracks in the fore stock. Butt stock looks OK. Can't tell if there is rot or not yet. Really haven't done much except look at it so far.
In summary, I don't believe I got a horror story, but time will tell. Might get something nice out of this yet. Not much is going to happen until Bible School is over at the end of the week. I need to so some research to get it apart etc in the meantime. I understand the entire action comes out which will hopefully make it easier to unfreeze the trigger, etc.Information
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