I have a sister that works at an insurance claims center for a major insurance company, when firearms are on a claim she lets me know what models, brands etc. are going to be let fore sale and I tell her which ones I want, seems its cheaper and less hassle for the large department stores to accept the insurance money rather than try to salvage the merchandise the claim was against.
In one instance a semi-truck was in an accident and had 40 handi-rifles on the claim, I purchased the lot for $575.00, none of them were damaged but it didn't seem to mater to the insurance company or the distributor they were destined for ( I think it was a Wally World truck ), even though the guns were complete I immediately removed that ugly wood and used it for kindling, some barrels were sold some re chambered and some were left the way they were and just restocked.
As far as the strength of frames if we get a frame that is questionable such as an early frame we run it trough a Rockwell hardness test, we have even found that the old topper frames are worthy of a rifle barrel, never have found a bad frame and we have tested dozens, but I am not suggesting any frame can be used for a heavy recoil rifle caliber, if you have not got access to a Rockwell test then its better to be safe than sorry.
