James River Armory restorations...

Sling Blade said:

Anybody ever use 'em? https://www.jamesriverarmory.com/products/category/40-restorations-shop-services.html I'm thinkin' 'bout havin' 'em see what they can do on my Smith-Corona.

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What is wrong with your Smith Corona?
Post picks , maybe many would consider it just fine.

There are a lot of guys out there that do really good work (I'm a smith corona fanatic).

Pics and a rough scope of work would help with recommending the best guy.

I used JRA for my K98. Very happy with their work.

why do you want to restore it? Is it in bad shape?
After years of working in shops that restored bikes I Usually I prefer original to restored.
Generally I'm of the opinion that things can be restored lots of times but they're only original once. That said a rifle like that is most likely already far from original so I guess it doesn't really matter.
I've heard good things about James River

Melnic said:

What is wrong with your Smith Corona?
Post picks , maybe many would consider it just fine.

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Ditto.
If there's a functional problem, most of the parts're (easily) user-replaceable. If it's cosmetic, as others've said, I'd leave it alone since icons like the S-C look better the more authentic they are.

Re butt plate: Remove it. Dip a toothpick into Elmer's glue, insert into one of the two butt plate holes and break off the toothpick so it's flush with the top of the hole. Repeat for other hole. If the hole's still off-center, repeat 'til you've got a small enough opening to reinstall the screws to centralize the butt stock.
Re the front swivel: Me thinks you're spending too much time lookin' for trouble.

Overall it looks too nice to mess with it to me.

Before you go breaking off toothpicks, see if the buttplate even fits right, and the trap aligns properly without the screws in place.
I suspect it won't and will require more than a small adjustment.
Probably need to drill out the existing holes, put in a dowel and re-drill in the right place or try to find another plate that fits better.
Or just sell it (to me)

I'll trade you my well fitted straight stock for that ill fitting C stock.

fred333 said:

Re the front swivel: Me thinks you're spending too much time lookin' for trouble.

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I just wondered if it was even the right one. That's all.

Sling Blade said:

I just wondered if it was even the right one. That's all.

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If you can shoot a 1024x768 (or thereabouts) jpg of the area in the red square I (or some other eagle-eyed member) outta be able tell you what's what.

Compare to this:

I bought a restored M1 Carbine from JRA and it was very nicely done, looked like a new rifle.

The sling swivel on 03A3s tends to do that. Only fit beef I have with JRA is the crappy barrel band spring they use for that barrel band, it does not retain the band properly. They also have too light a park on most small parts.

I bought a JRA Garand. Being restored and mixmastered, it has no collector value and I'm ok with that. I have no intention of ever selling it...unless I find myself in a truly dire situation. I can say I have a "Garand" in my collection and don't feel like I have to tread softly around the collecting gods if I shoot it or scratch it. It looks like a brand new rifle. One of these days I'll figure out how to post pics...

I wouldn't think your stock is original to your rifle, so it's not like you'd be desecrating a pristine specimen. Other than the buttplate (which you could probably improve yourself), your rifle looks fine to me. It's a veteran that's earned its patina. If JRA restores it, it will look like a new rifle...nothing wrong with that, but it's a whole different animal then. It really depends on what you want your rifle to be.

I have a 1903 that I'm leaving alone because I like it's earned patina. When I get an 03A3, it's most likely going to come from or get sent to JRA.
It's too bad they aren't in Halethorpe anymore

Here's just another "take" on restorations -- no matter who does them.

Unless the firearm is pretty well trashed, having it restored raises the cost of the item and lowers the collector value. You end up with a pretty rifle, but some collectors would view it as a tarted-up whore, as compared to a natural beauty.

You may feel that it doesn't matter, because it's your gun (no argument there) and you don't plan to sell it. Fair argument, but the chances are pretty darned good that you aren't going to live forever, and unless you have arranged for a Viking funeral where all you guns are going to be burned with you as you float toward Valhalla across the Chesapeake, someone eventually will sell it.

That's when it becomes problematic.

Places like the NASM restoration shop meticulously record, and stamp with the name of the restorer, every part that is not original to the plane. Gun restorers outside of museum environments don't do that. I don't know how else to put this, but another name for most "restored" firearms is "fakes". Some are quite good, and look very much like original guns in excellent condition. Sometimes even desirable marks are put onto it that were never there to begin with.

Even under the best of conditions, that gun that you had restored may eventually be sold by someone who assumes that it's an original in outstanding original condition.

I recently bought a rifle on GB that I paid top dollar for (high market value) because it was "all original and all matching". When I got it home, and was able to see things that weren't shown in the photos, what turned up was that the stock on it was "restored" to include very careful sanding (no rounded edges or improper sanding marks). The main focus of that sanding turned out to be taking the original serial number off, after which it was over-stamped to match the rest of the gun.

There's nothing to stop you from having whatever you want done to your property, but unless it's identifiable as a restoration, at some point it gets foggy about whether someone's identifying a gun as having been restored when it gets sold, or if someone's committing fraud.