If it were me, depending on just how bad the scratches are, if I wanted a shooter, I'd buy them and see what I could do with the scratches.
Depending on the severity of the scratches, I'd start out with some fine emery cloth and see if I could polish the scratches out. It would most likely take several steps using finer cloth in each step, and I don't know how they would turn out (I haven't seen them), but I'd bet that they'd look a whole lot nicer than they do now. 600 or finer emery cloth will polich steel fairly nice, but you may still have fine scratches. I've seen bead blasting polished out that looked good.
I just depends on how much work you want to put into them, and how picky you are about finishes.
That's one of the things that gets me about cowboy action shooting. Everything is about looks, and I see guys ruining clothing, rifles, hats, and anything else involved to instantly have that "worn" look. Heck, over in Tombstone you can even buy hats that are actually shaped all bent up like an old hat; they just don't have any sweat stains on them. It reminds me of the "cowboys" in high school. They'd be wearing brand new blue jeans, and they'd have a white, worn ring in the back pocket where they'd taken a snuff can, stuck it in the pocket, and rubbed it on the concrete to look like it was worn there naturally.
Quality stuff is getting harder to come by these days, and when you find it, it costs money to get it. I have some well worn rifles and work clothing, but I sure never tried to hurry the process a'purpose. Oh well, to each their own I reckon.
~Rat
