February 19, 2014, 06:09 PM | #1 |
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C&R - Like Popcorn
Every now and again I come upon a "story book" gun. A gun you can hold in your hands and immediately start to wonder "where the hell have you been?". I'm not speaking of the ones that spent the last 80 years sitting in a box on a shelf remaining in 'as new' or in a transit chest in some armory still 'unissued', or the incorrectly 'restored' mixmaster garands. Rather, a gun that got out, used, scarred and was cared for to such a degree that it could go out today and do it some more.
Such is the example listed below for me. Manufactured in 1930, the owner installed bone grips probably within the first several years of it's life. Although it retains 70%-80% of its original finish, the balance having been scratched and worn from years of carry, internally it doesn't appear to have been shot much and the mechanisms including the barrel remain in near new condition and original to the gun. For a gun that cost $45.00 new at a time when the average annual income was $1,368, this was quite an investment for someone (my father in 1936 was making $2 a day and bought his first car, a well used model T, for $15). I'll be sending off for a letter from Colt, but I doubt it will have much of the story. Whatever the story was for the last 84 years, I bet it was a good one. |
February 19, 2014, 09:44 PM | #2 |
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Nice 1911! Thanks for posting.
TK |
February 19, 2014, 10:54 PM | #3 |
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Nice! I love C&R guns for the exact reasons you mentioned. It just seems as though so much is there to be discovered and valued.
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February 21, 2014, 02:58 PM | #4 |
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I know what you mean!
I have a couple C&R rifles that when I pick up I just can't help but thinking:
"Where in the hell have you been and what have you done?" If only guns could tell their story....that's why I (and prob everyone else) loves C&R guns, they just have so much soul. |
February 21, 2014, 03:08 PM | #5 |
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Very nice pistol!!
I have had a C&R 03 FFL for a number of years now and own many milsurp guns. Some tell a story of a hard life and other don't give up their secrets very easy. I have one K98 Mauser 1939 and a LE 303 1942 I wish could talk. Both have bayonet gashes on their stocks and the LE 303 has a nasty bayo gash to the top of the receiver. Both saw some hard action and I am sure some nasty battles. I love C&R guns for this very reason - history!
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