- Joined
- Jan 28, 2003
- Messages
- 13,341
So last Thursday I walk into one of the "low rent" gun shops in my area. Generally the guy has nothing of interest but I needed to kill some time between teaching a class and picking my daughter up from school. I walk into the place and on the counter newly arrived is an original Civil War era 3 band .58 Cal Springfield cap lock rifle. I slide over and start discretely checking it out. The rifle is in really good shape with strong rifling, the stock is in good shape with the normal wear you'd expect and the metal is good, covered in a patina with almost no bluing left but very little pitting and all the markings are legible.
$2900.00 was what the tag on the rigger said....
. Oh well at least I got to lay my hands upon it. As the stars cleared from my eyes and I refocused I noticed a little .22 Browning Auto Rifle (SA-22) I can see the price tag and it says $470. It must be a Japanese rifle I'm thinking. So the guy behind the counter hands it to me and right there on the barrel plain as day it reads "Belgium" . Hmmm. The gun has a bit of surface rust at the base of the barrel and at the muzzle. It obviously has been stored in a vinyl gun case for a time but it is nothing that can't be cured with a little love, some oil and 0000 steel wool. The bore was pristine and the wood had some wear but it's just cosmetic.
Long story short I walked out of there with that little rifle. I had one as a kid and the memories came flooding back as I took my daughter down to our shooting range, taught her the basics of the rifle and the watched her blast through several hundred .22 LR rounds with nary a missed shot. She kept an old plastic fence insulator dancing for round after round and the smile on her face just kept getting bigger and bigger. She informed me that she is going to win our annual fathers day shooting competition with that rifle next year. And I think she just might! What a lovely little rifle and what a happy place that little gun has in my heart. Those little Browning SA-22's are pure magic to shoot and carry. Everybody should have one in their collection at least one time in their life!
$2900.00 was what the tag on the rigger said....
. Oh well at least I got to lay my hands upon it. As the stars cleared from my eyes and I refocused I noticed a little .22 Browning Auto Rifle (SA-22) I can see the price tag and it says $470. It must be a Japanese rifle I'm thinking. So the guy behind the counter hands it to me and right there on the barrel plain as day it reads "Belgium" . Hmmm. The gun has a bit of surface rust at the base of the barrel and at the muzzle. It obviously has been stored in a vinyl gun case for a time but it is nothing that can't be cured with a little love, some oil and 0000 steel wool. The bore was pristine and the wood had some wear but it's just cosmetic.Long story short I walked out of there with that little rifle. I had one as a kid and the memories came flooding back as I took my daughter down to our shooting range, taught her the basics of the rifle and the watched her blast through several hundred .22 LR rounds with nary a missed shot. She kept an old plastic fence insulator dancing for round after round and the smile on her face just kept getting bigger and bigger. She informed me that she is going to win our annual fathers day shooting competition with that rifle next year. And I think she just might! What a lovely little rifle and what a happy place that little gun has in my heart. Those little Browning SA-22's are pure magic to shoot and carry. Everybody should have one in their collection at least one time in their life!
