Notes from the gun shop...

I wish something had happened today.  Not much did.  Things seem awful slow for hunting season.

Mike Martin came in today.  He was talking about his daughter who's at Radford.  I remember when Mike was at VMI.  He's right, it made me feel a bit old.   He's put on a lot of rank since then and looking at O-5 next.

There was a neat old Winchester 1873 rifle, a B prefix serial caliber .38 WCF, and with a 30" octagonal barrel.  Somebody had replaced the rear sight with a more modern open sight and it was missing a lower tang screw.  Neat gun.

We did have some folks bring some antiques... One was a American Civil War contract musket which appeared to be made in Germany.  Another was a folding trigger pinfire revolver of about .32 caliber...  and then...  we had the fellow who wanted to complete a rifle that was...

... a conglomeration.  It used a Springfield 1863 lock and cut-down stock.  The hammer had had several notches neatly filed around the perimeter for reasons unknown.  The barrel appeared to be a piece of what appeared to be cold rolled steel that had been beaten into a rough approximation of octagonal with a hole drilled down the "middle" (very roughly down the middle at that).  The ramrod, which went by that name due to its location more than any reasonable function, was a length of brazing rod with a glob of solder affixed to one end.  The best redeeming feature was that the lock and stock hardware might be worth the $40 paid.  And so it goes...