choc-dog said:
JC,
Are you going to hunt with that rifle or frame it???
Greg
Greg,
I should also explain
why I bought this Mauser....
Obviously, I didn't
need this gun, but I did certainly
want this gun! Fortunately, that alone is not enough for me to be a gun of this nature.
The only way I could justify to myself purchasing a rifle like this is if felt I it was also a good
investment. Therefore, my approach to purchasing this rifle was simple. First, determine what it was worth then determine if I could purchase it for a substantial discount to its value. If yes, then I would honestly consider it.
In order to determine the value I took the following multi-step approach....
1)
Assess the value of current replacement cost: This one was easy for this gun...minimum 500$ for action and metal work, minimum 750$ for Swarovski scope and rings, At least 2500$ for the wood blank, at least 750$ for the stock work...(all of that is being very conservative) total approximate replacement cost 4500$.
2)
Compare to current market value of other similar current production guns Of course this one is a little tougher because no one produces guns like this anymore. However, I think it safe to say that a close approximation would be the wood stocked Dakota 97's. Using that assumption to come close to the wood quality of Keith Stegalls gun would cost in the 3000$+ range (without a scope).
3)
Finally I looked for other guns that are currently for sale in the public market to see what the going/asking prices are in order to get a good value of the
perception of the guns true worth. Unfortunately, once again this was difficult to accomplish, however, I was very excited with what I found.
As you can imagine Keith's guns are highly collected and rarely come to market. Along those lines I have only found 3 of Keiths' guns available for sale, 2 Mauser's and 1 Winchester pre-64.....Out of all three of those guns, only one of those guns was very close to the quality of wood on my Stegall (I actually think my wood is nicer, and the checkering pattern is on mine is definitely more desirable as it includes both Fluer-d-lis- and ribbon patterns... :wink
....
Finally, Based on what I found above I absolutely had to buy this rifle for the price it was being offered....
It is already clear I made the right decision as I received and offer on this riffle two days after I purchased it....that was 25% higher than what I paid!!
JC