I worked my way through college, Portland State University, working in a sporting goods store. I was the manager of the firearms and handloading department.
We only carried new firearms, but folks were always dragging in used rifles and handguns to trade-in.
One day, an elderly man came up to the gun counter and wanted to sell me his rifle. It was a pre-war Winchester Model 70 in .30-'06. The stock was not only highly figured, but it was actually blonde. The receiver was unmolested, no extra holes and the factory iron sights were perfect for the era.
I asked him about the rifle and he told me that the Winchester rep lived next door to him for many years. When Winchester changed from the Model 54 to the Model 70, this special blonde stocked rifle was his sales sample.
At the end of the year, his neighbor was asked to either send the rifle back or sell it. He sold it to the neighbor, my customer.
He used a Model 94 in .30-30 for blacktails, so the rifle just sat in his attic.
Oh yeah, one more thing about the rifle ... the serial number was very short and very lonely on the M-70s looooong front receiver bridge.
The serial number was
125.
I bought that glorious rifle for $75, exactly what the man asked.
It was 1964, Karen and I were poor, starving students at the time ,,, even maybe living off the land a little
, We were in our early-20s and literally penniless.
I loved the rifle for a few months and sold it to a local mega-collector for the magnificent sum of $800 ... a full year's tuition for BOTH of us.
Hey, I'd do it all over again .... still .... that lonely 125 haunts me.
God Bless,
Steve
!!
