Posted on 09/09/2016 2:23:07 AM PDT by Swordmaker
WOW! I can’t recall the last time a 1 of 1000 Winchester was sold! There are only 133 known. I knew where the 134th was. A high school kid inherited one from his uncle back in 1975 and turned it into a floor lamp in his high school shop! His mom wouldn’t let him put it in her house so he brought it down to me when I was managing the Old Sacramento Armoury to see if I would be interested in buying it. I was sick when I saw what it was. He’d drilled right through the 1 of 1000 designation on the barrel to run the wire for the lamp attachment on the end of the muzzle! AAAARRRGGGHHHH!
This auction is overflowing with gun porn for collectors including a Gattling Gun!
Horse whipping would be too good for the kid.
AAARRGGHH! is right!
Did you explain to the shop student the destruction he wrought? Hope that hangs around his neck like the Ancient Mariner's albatross.
Approximately how much is this worth?
Lot 254: Desirable U.S. Inspected and 1887 Dated Colt Model 1883 Gatling Gun with Field Carriage Just the thing for your picture window in front. Keep the neighbor kids in line. . .
My 3rd Model Winchester model 1873 was turned out of New Haven in 1882. It is not 1 of 1000, not 1 of 100. It is an old shooter, lots of dings and bumps and much of the rifling was rusted out. It will hit into a liberty silver dollar at 50 yds and around 4-5” at 100. I have put thousands of rounds down range through this piece, most for cowboy action shooting. I e broken 3 springs in doing so and bought replacements from some guy down in Texas who has them parted out. Though the main spring is now from a 92 (same mainspring). It shoots my own smokeless .44WCF loads which are very mild. I use .430” bullets as opposed to the stock .427” ones due to the worn out bore.
God I love shooting this thing. This 134 year old relic might have been held by Earp, Masterson....who knows? Probably though by some farmer up in NH where I picked it up.
Auction estimate is $80,000 to $150,000. $80k is minimum bid.
Winchester ‘73. Great movie!
I did. . . I tod him he took a $25,000 to $30,000 collector's item gun (at that time) and turned into a $500 to $1000 piece of kitschy art that I didn't want in my store. I didn't want it becaus too many of my customers would have been just as upset and pissed off as I was about what he'd done to one of the rarest and most desirable collector's pieces in existence. I'd spend too much time talking about it and defending why I had it. Truthfully, the kid was ignorant, I was much more irate at the shop teacher who let him do it without getting the gun appraised. That gun would have paid for his college tuition back then! It was almost new condition!
ping
Super! Thanks.
See? There really is at least SOME justification for not letting kids bring guns to school!
Should have bought it: a proficient restorer would not have had a problem taking care of a hole in the barrel. I have seen many rare but damaged firearms re-done so well that they were exactly the way they should be. Costs money but it's worth it.
Neat!
My grandfather had one of these. It was passed down by my great-great-grandfather, who had it delivered to him after he and his family pioneered to northern Michigan shortly after the Civil War. He used it on the farm and we have some old pictures of him holding it in front of the cabin (which still stands, by the way). I remember it still worked when I was little. Unfortunately, I have no idea what happened to it. It wasn’t among my grandfather’s possessions when he died at age 100 a couple of years ago.
Even with this flaw, it's out of my price range...
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