Spent the morning at our little local gun show. Just as I was leaving, a fella I know came in the door with a Pedersoli Sharps repro to sell. Of course I wanted to look at it.
I asked what caliber it was, and he said it was a .45-70, but had been rechambered for .45-27/8 Sharps, or better known as .45-110. The rifle has a 36" half octagon barrel, double set triggers, and inexpensive long range vernier/globe sights.
I asked him what he wanted for it, and he said $375! I then was curious why he was selling it, and he said it was too spendy to shoot, and too much recoil. He doesn't reload, so I guess that could be pretty spendy. I decided it was too good to pass up, so I paid the man.
When I got home, I was looking the gun over, when I noticed a piece of paper under the buttplate. I removed the screws, and under the buttplate was a receipt for $365 worth of work that had been done. Rechambering, recrowning, cutting the barrel to half octagon, rebluing, trigger work, cutting and installing a rear sight dovetail, and a rear sight!
Amazing that someone would buy a decent gun, put that much money into it, and then sell it for a little more than the work cost. The receipt wasn't made out to the guy I got the gun from, but to another name.
Called the fella up and asked if he had looked under the buttplate. He hadn't, and was pretty surprised when I told him what I had found. He had paid a bit more than I did, but still not nearly what the original owner must have had invested!
Sure must have been someone with lots of extra money to throw around!