I tried to register but something happened, anyhow, I could use a little advice on a couple of old ’73’s.  I bought these some years back with the thought of doing a restoration, but now am considering simply repairing them functionally and leaving them in a more “historical” state.  I have one of them working, round barrel 44-40 that someone shortened.  I replaced a few badly worn parts and cleaned up some wear and corrosion, plugged and re-tapped the cover slide screws, de-grimed the wood etc etc.  Cycles and shoots ok, I had to re-crown it as the cutoff wasn’t square.  It is a uniform brown color without much pitting.  The stock is not cracked but is pretty beaten up.  The dents are deep (both guns are similar in that regard) and I doubt that I could raise them, so restoration would need new wood.  The other one is 19″ octagon third model.  The receiver was so worn that I had to build up some spots including the rails the bolt rides on.  In doing that there was a lot of cosmetic damage from heat and flux and reshaping.  The brown patina is gone in those areas and I am wondering if going ahead and restoring the whole thing might be the best way to go.  I’m not sure about the barrel length.  I guess they could be ordered in various lengths, but I don’t think the 19 3/8″ octagon was standard.

So, a little advice on how far to go with them would be appreciated.  I didn’t think they were worth much of anything when I got them back in the day, but I sure don’t see many real ’73’s in any condition floating around in these days of AR-whatever domination in the gun trade.