There Are Gems to be Found, Lots of Words and Pic Heavy.
This past weekend Hawaii had its semi annual Gun show, prior to the show one of my initial mentors of 1903 collecting let me know about some guns that came out of the back of a shop that they desperately just wanted to get rid of. 2 1903 Receivers, a Complete 1903 and a 1917. He mentioned all were in rusty cruddy condition with lousy bores, the guy that told him about it goes to church with some of the guys that work at the shop and none of them knew anything about the pieces. So old boy goes over, looks it over, tells them not to expect much and all the reasons why and goes on his way, lets me know about the pieces and that he put in the good word for me and to bring them to the show. So I meet up with my contact and hes absolutely un reasonable, for a rusty 1903 he wants 600, bore looks like the moon, for a rusty 1917 he wants 600, metal looks like the moon and the bore, the 1903 receivers had tomato stake barrels and one had holes drilled in it, they wanted 150 a piece. I offered 1000 for all of it. The contact said 1100 and after which kept shaking his head and wouldnt hear a thing, he said it all was in excellent condition and would clean up and I could make money off of it. So after going back and forth a bit I said forget it and asked how much for the 1903 and the 2 receivers, he said 800, I said 750, so I accepted, I was a bit turned off by his attitude so I was going to back down, but that little voice said stick with the deal, so I did. When the old man had looked at the 03 previously, he said it had some match traits, but he wasnt convinced, no star gauged barrel, reverse safety, etc, upon looking at it I said the same thing, looks like a home made match rifle. Come time to bring it home, sit down, look at it, go over it, this gem emerged. I have a little more cleaning up to do, but got the majority of it.
Reply With Quote
