My Lucky Day!
Around 1971, I was at a local gun show. Walking down the aisle comes a guy dangling what appears to a Krag barreled action with bolt draped over his finger, and a little bag of parts. Everything was there except the wood - I mean every screw.
Had to be a cut-off, right? Nooo - it was a very nice, and completely correct, ?1895? carbine. He wanted $90. He got it. Back in those days I had a few spare stocks, so, by that night, 26429 was whole again.
Fast forward 40 years of being in my personal collection.
A good friend of mine - who had not been too discerning in his acquisitions over the years, wanted ?one nice Krag carbine and one nice trapdoor carbine? to replace his cut-offs. Since by then, I?d acquired 24893, the other was a duplicate. I sold him the two guns, for a fair, but stiff price, each with a ?first-refusal? buy-back agreement.
Sadly, last year my friend passed away. Not wishing to be pushy and having been told that ?nothing would be done in a rush?, I let a decent interval pass, then asked about the guns.
His son professed no knowledge of the agreement, and told me that the guns were ?all gone?. ?Some guy came down from Idaho with a couple of trailers and took everything?. Guessing (correctly it turned out) that ?some guy? pretty well had to be a man I knew, so, I called him. ?Gee, I?m sorry, Dick, those are all gone, and I just lost my business partner so everything is messed up.?
Well - that?s it, I thought.
Then, and just a few months ago, the Idaho dealer (Glenn Mattox - nice guy, he will be missed) passed away. ALL possible hope of information, or a trail, now really gone.
Fast forward to yesterday. I set up at a (different) local show - which I seldom attend, and where I had never had a table, but we wanted to dispose of my step-son?s guns in which we had no interest. After setting up, went for my first walk around. I see a Krag carbine on display with a pretty high price prominently posted. This attracted my attention, as this is NOT a ?collector? show (black rifles, duck hunters, and female gee-gaws).
I don?t have to tell you it was 26429, do I?
Turns out that the seller also knew Glenn, and had bought it from him at some point last year. What are the odds that it would show up in the only place where I was possibly the only person to truly appreciate it, at exactly the only time I would be in that place? And, the seller said he was about to leave for a large military collector show the first week of December - where it would NOT have gone un-noticed.
Yes, I bought it. Took ALL my gun kitty, but, it is as good as money in the bank, AND it was two days after my birthday!
Reply With Quote
