Here's a good story --

The local shop has a new display case. It's full of "wrecks" . . . all handguns. They're "parts guns." Rusted, broken, missing parts, beaten, battered, no longer made and you can't get parts for them. They're mostly modern smokeless, but some black powder stuff.

They're all priced at about $20.

The shop is in Washington state. I'm in Oregon, and so buying a handgun, even one that's a "parts gun" gets complicated. It needs to be transferred to an Oregon FFL.

Not so for black powder.

So I'm looking at the BP stuff. Having built a kit or two, I'm always interested in a project.

No name, muzzle loading perc. cap. Moving the hammer and trigger, it feels like most of the springs are missing. Some exterior screws missing too. It's not a particularly handsome piece. I'm thinking about it now though as a "second project."

Some sort of cheapo 1861 Colt Navy, brass frame. The cylinder axel is broken out of the reciever. Everything is rusted together. It's beyond hope.

Third item -- CVA 1849 Wells Fargo. No rust, no battered screws. Seems to have decent integrity. Pulling back the hammer, the action jams up. But I can feel that the hammer spring is present.

Twenty dollars . . . How can you lose? Take it apart, and even if I can't fix it, it will look nice on the coffee table.

So, I get it home, take it apart. The trigger and cylinder pawl spring is installed upside down and jamming the action.

Turned the spring over and the gun functions flawlessly. Removed the nipples from the cylinder, and they're all rust free. The chambers are rust free. Barrel is pristine.

I buffed out some of the machine marks in the brass, polished it up. Stripped the grips of the shiny varnish whatever finish, steel wool, linseed oil, and floor wax.

Smoothed the sharp edge on the muzzle, crowned it. (It wasn't crowned.) Smoothed out the cutting machine marks on the muzzle.

The trigger jutted forward into the guard at a weird angle. I reduced the curve on the trigger. It looks and feels nice now. Polished up the sear faces.

$20.00 -- out the door.

Nice score.

Sounds like a good deal, but as they say a picture is worth a thousand words.