I picked up this roller for a song at an auction and bought the missing parts from Ken Womack, to put it back to authentic condition.

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First firing made a 2 foot wide group at 50 yards. After casting the muzzle and doing a little soul searching, I snipped off 3/8" from the muzzle and hand crowned it.

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Now, with a seat of my pants load, I shot about 4 inches at 100 yards with Buffalo Arms' .287 154 grain Spitzer.

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Having confirmed that the gun is at least shootable, I checked around for suggestions on how to properly and respectfully re-finish it, while preserving the authenticity as much as possible. Some of the issues I wish to fix are, improve the sights and sight picture, as the sights are pretty beat up and very hard to use. Also, the replacement forends are darker and dryer than the buttstock, which is redder and smoother. Finally, the replacement bands and other metal parts don't match the receiver patina very well.

As a result, I have formed the plans for this project around the following:
1) Chemical strip and refinish the stocks to match the color and finish using linseed oil
2) Square up the edges of the sights, and rust blue to a matte finish to get a better sight picture
3) Rust brown the replacement metals and rough them a little to get closer to the receiver and barrel patina.

Given that the gun was incomplete when I got it, I was assured that as long as I didn't do any more cutting than the crown, I would not be doing any damage to the value by doing these light improvements.

Thoughts?

I just dug out my copy of Phil Sharpe's 1939 "The Rifle in America".  Even back then, Sharpe said that the rifle and cartridge was intended for relatively low pressures and not for modern or European sporting loads.   

There are some long eye relief scopes that fasten to military rear sights.  You might look into something like that.

What is the contact info for Ken Womack? I need a cleaning rod and a few other small parts. I see a lot of discussion about not using modern ammo in these but I have used light loads with light bullets with no problems. Fired cases look fine and a friend has one and also has no problems. Would not use max loads in it though. Using browning to match an old brown gun is a trick I learned a long time ago. I have a couple of different browning solutions I use to get the best match.