Bayoubob & Capt Curl, I can agree with you both on this subject to some degree, but with some reservations!

BayouBob I think the difference here is that your grand father’s old broken and abused shotgun is one thing and a finely made firearm, of any make, are two entirely different things! The old shotgun means something to you and so is priceless TO YOU just the way it is. I have some of my family’s old ranch guns that were like you old shotgun, and like yours they will remain that way! However, those guns started life as TOOLS as I’m sure your old shotgun did, and were not "works of art" at the time they were made, and never would have been unless they were still in the original box and unfired, and only mildly so then!

On the other hand, Capt Curl’s take! The Webley & Scott 500NE double rifle started life as a WORKING work of art and should have been cared for with that level of respect. The fact is the fine hand made double rifle will out live several owners if cared for properly, even with every day use in the hunting fields would be a finer firearm when 120 years old, than your grand father’s old shot gun or my family’s old ranch rifles were when they left the factory. What this man did to this old double rifle is not the bettering of the TOOL, but one of ignorance, much like painting a mustache on the Mona Lisa with a marks-a-lot!

All I’m saying is, some things simply shouldn’t be done even to privately owned things! The W&S can certainly be put back to LOOK as it was, but it will never be as it was because a new stock is a “NEW REPLACEMENT”, and a replacement front sight is a “NEW REPLACEMENT “ while the rifle is a 1910 heirloom that has been trashed!

Of course opinions vary!