sad commentary that NONE of them wanted to keep it...
Posted on 07/07/2012 5:51:46 AM PDT by marktwain
Fairfax, Virginia - After safely stored away in his grandfather's closet for years, the Springfield rifle above almost found it's way to the scrap heap. Luckily Carl was there to save the day. And lucky for us, he brought it in to the National Firearms Museum's for inspection.
"A few of my family members were go through my grandfather's closet and found this stuck inside some plastic wrap," Carl began. "Their first reaction was to give it to the local police department for disposal — to which I exclaimed,'Hold on a minute there.'"
That's when Museum Director Jim Supica grabbed his chest. Crisis, of course, was averted. Richard picked up the rifle, took it home and eventually brought it here to the museum. That's when Supica went to work.
"It's a U.S. Trainer, a .22 long rifle bolt action gun. A Model 1922 Springfield Armory and it's just in exceptional, exceptional condition. I bet it looked like this when it came out of the armory."
Supica continued his inspection of the gun as Senior Curator Phil Schreier made his way into the room. After a quick examination, he escorted Carl into the museum library for a look at a collection of similar rifles on display. They talked more about the gun's history, took a few pictures, packed up the rifle and parted ways.
All thankful that Carl was able to save his grandfather's gun.
sad commentary that NONE of them wanted to keep it...
This is the type of item that often ends up in the silly gun turn in programs.
Many of those valuable guns are sucked up by the savvy cops and politicians for free.
Sorry to be a nitpicker, but the caliber is .30-06, not .306, .30 being the actually caliber(.308 or 7.62MM)and 06 being the year it was invented, or actually improved upon from the 30-03.
“... born 12 hours later...”
Heck, you had PLENTY of time for the gunsmith, a couple hours of range time, and a burger & beer. LOL!
That’s funny!
Thanks for sharing.
Several years ago, before people caught on, I found an online auction from a state back east for confiscated TSA good. I won several auctions for knives in bulk, a 20 pound box, a few ten pound boxes, a box of multi-tools. When word spread, the winning prices went too high.
I was surprised by the low quality of the knives. There were a very few good brands and oddball foreign knives of good quality, but most were junk. Same with the multi-tools. Some Leathermans but mostly cheap copies. The TSA people didn't seem to like Victorinox Swiss Army knives, there was quite a collection.
It ended up making me mad when I would find a beautiful little penkife, honed razor sharp, engraved with somebody's initials and carried lovingly. Not the weapon of a hijacker. I know how it feels to lose a good knife by accident, to lose it by force must be gut-wrenching.
I’m very happy for you. I’ve been with my wife 20 years, and the years have just flown by.
A widow woman took her deceased husband's WWI Springfield and 1911 Colt to be disposed of.
The cop on duty recognized them as collector's items and told her to take them to a dealer for appraisal as they were worth way more than what she would get at the buyback.
The cop was later reprimanded by his superiors for letting them get away.
Kinda like when CAMP raids a marijuana patch.
There were comparatively few of the .22 trainers made, and most of them did not hold up in service due to the destructive effects of corrosive primers on the barrels.
Happy for the correction. I didn’t think .306 looked right.
And I bet it wasn't drilled and tapped for a scope when it left the armory.
12 hours? Plenty of time! ;)
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