QuarterBoreGunner
Member
Stopped by to see my Mom the other day, she mentions that one of her neighbor’s sons had passed away. They’re in their 80’s and the son was in his 60’s, out of the blue heart attack with no previous history of heart problems. ‘Oh, that’s too bad’ (I had never met the son but had met the parents, Jim and Sarah, several times and they know I shoot.) Mom then says that Sarah mentioned that her son used to do a lot of shooting and had left a pile of his stuff at their house, and would I like to take a look at it? ‘Oh really?’(Mmmmm this could be interesting… probably just a bunch of old cleaning supplies and empty brass) ‘Sure mom, I’ll take a look.’
So down the street we go. Sarah and Jim are dealing with their loss, always sad when a parent outlives their child. Sarah mentions that her son used to shoot in competitions while in the Navy. (This is now sounding REALLY interesting). She shows me to the garage where the son used to store ammo. Big cardboard box, the usual collection of empty shell casings and old reloads… then… hey what’s this? Twenty sealed boxes of twenty rounds each, ‘Frankford Arsenal 1965 production 7.62 NATO MATCH 173grn’ Cool. Half a case of old Winchester .45 185gfn Match semi-wadcutter. That’s cool also.
Sarah then says that the son left some guns also but so far they can only locate one of them. She shows me to a closet and tries to lift out a grungy old vinyl rifle case. I get it out and unzip the case and proceed to pull out a very dirty and linty Winchester Model 52. With the Redfield Olympic sights. And an original military sling. With an Al Freeland adjustable stop.
Wow. Already the little wheels are spinning in my brain.
After some more small talk, I casually say that if she’d like I can take the rifle and the ammo off her hands for a good price. Nope. Sarah says to just take them.
Free.
Ok so now I feel like a vulture. ‘Sarah, uhm, this rifle is probably worth at least $600 and the ammo is probably worth a lot also’ (Kicking myself for being honest but at least I’m not taking advantage of a grieving mother.)
Nope. Still free. She’s just glad to that her son’s stuff is going to a good home. ‘Seriously?’ Seriously.
Ok then. Sarah says that she’ll keep looking for the ‘other guns’.
Again with the ‘Wow’ factor.
The 52 has honest wear on the blue and a nice collection of small dings in the stock. Someone along the line filed a notch in the bolt handle to clear the rear sight. The bolt is sticky because the oil has turned to varnish and the bore looks like it’s fur lined. The rifle has sat in that case, by Sarah’s estimation, for about 30 years (yipes!) and the brass hooks on the sling have a nice green fur of corrosion around them but the trigger is sweet and everything feels tight.
I can hardly wait to see what rifle goes with that 7.62 Match and .45 ammo.
So down the street we go. Sarah and Jim are dealing with their loss, always sad when a parent outlives their child. Sarah mentions that her son used to shoot in competitions while in the Navy. (This is now sounding REALLY interesting). She shows me to the garage where the son used to store ammo. Big cardboard box, the usual collection of empty shell casings and old reloads… then… hey what’s this? Twenty sealed boxes of twenty rounds each, ‘Frankford Arsenal 1965 production 7.62 NATO MATCH 173grn’ Cool. Half a case of old Winchester .45 185gfn Match semi-wadcutter. That’s cool also.
Sarah then says that the son left some guns also but so far they can only locate one of them. She shows me to a closet and tries to lift out a grungy old vinyl rifle case. I get it out and unzip the case and proceed to pull out a very dirty and linty Winchester Model 52. With the Redfield Olympic sights. And an original military sling. With an Al Freeland adjustable stop.
Wow. Already the little wheels are spinning in my brain.
After some more small talk, I casually say that if she’d like I can take the rifle and the ammo off her hands for a good price. Nope. Sarah says to just take them.
Free.
Ok so now I feel like a vulture. ‘Sarah, uhm, this rifle is probably worth at least $600 and the ammo is probably worth a lot also’ (Kicking myself for being honest but at least I’m not taking advantage of a grieving mother.)
Nope. Still free. She’s just glad to that her son’s stuff is going to a good home. ‘Seriously?’ Seriously.
Ok then. Sarah says that she’ll keep looking for the ‘other guns’.
Again with the ‘Wow’ factor.
The 52 has honest wear on the blue and a nice collection of small dings in the stock. Someone along the line filed a notch in the bolt handle to clear the rear sight. The bolt is sticky because the oil has turned to varnish and the bore looks like it’s fur lined. The rifle has sat in that case, by Sarah’s estimation, for about 30 years (yipes!) and the brass hooks on the sling have a nice green fur of corrosion around them but the trigger is sweet and everything feels tight.
I can hardly wait to see what rifle goes with that 7.62 Match and .45 ammo.
