Originally Posted by
Muley Hunter
Offer him $120 for both guns. Then you can't lose.
What Muley said! If you can get them both for $120-$130...go for it! You can always use the rusty one for a project gun. Watch Ebay for used parts, etc. Maybe scour it out with JB paste and get it shooting decent and keep it as a "back up only" gun and tweek the good one in and use it.
I once brought home a Traditions in-line rifle (can't remember which model) from my Mother-in-laws shop that had the old style spring cocking mechanism. She had bought it from an individual for $50. The bore looked good, but a lot of the blackened parts showed rust and the man told her he didn't know much about muzzleloading rifles so I doubt he ever took any time to develop a load.
I took it apart, cleaned it up and took all of the blackened parts to work with me and polished them and then had them run through our black bath tanks. I sighted the rifle in with 90gr. of loose Pyro RS and some Powerbelt (I believe 250gr.) bullets I had to spare and got very good accuracy with it. I took it back to her shop with the sight-in target and load data written on it and told her to ask $100 for it.
A week later the same man she bought it from bought it back!
BPS