Saturday, November 08, 2008

The list just gets longer...

The longer you collect old guns, the longer the list of stuff you need gets...

1) An extractor and a grip screw for a Frommer Stop.
2) A Radom recoil assembly.
3) A takedown plunger for a Colt 1902.
4) A thumb safety for a Colt 1908 Vest Pocket.
5) Un-bubba'ed stocks for a Ross Mk.II and a Mannlicher-Berthier M.1907/15.
6) A magazine spring and follower for a Siamese M.1903.

Wanna have fun? Ask the gun parts guy at the local Fun Show for any of the above. You'll probably get a "Nope," on the Colt parts and maybe the Radom bit, too. The other stuff just gets you a blank stare.

20 comments:

  1. My father in law has a Colt Vest Pocket .25, serial number places it in 1919. Any idea what those are worth? It's in pretty good condition.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Robb,

    That's a nice looking Vest Pocket. It's hard to be certain without actually looking at it, but if the condidition is in the 90-95% range, you're looking at maybe a $450-$500 gun, maybe a bit more.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Siamese M.1903? Yep, a blank stare. Whatzit?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Siamese Mauser.

    They chamber a fat, rimmed cartridge and look like a Mauser Gew.98 with a perch-belly stock to cover the deep magazine necessitated by the rimmed rounds and an Arisaka-esque sliding bolt cover.

    Due to the case-head dimensions, most were sporterized back in the '60s and '70s into .45-70 brush carbines.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Going through that right now with a stock for my Tu-33/40 norico trainer. Nothing but stactic and snow.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Tam with ref the Radom i know a Dealer over here who used to have a lot of Radom Parts i will ask him on monday if he still has any or did he get rid of them with the pistol ban.
    AJDshootist in the UK.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Further to my last coment Tam if you look at http://rjholloway.co.uk in the modern pistol section he has a Radom for sale.
    AJD in UK

    ReplyDelete
  8. If you find those Ross stocks, I'd like to know...

    MC

    ReplyDelete
  9. Just about anyone else I'd say "Have you checked Numrich/Gun Parts Corporation?" But they probably have you on retainer...

    Word: cress. Roberta getting you to go all healthy food on us?

    ReplyDelete
  10. if you replace "guns" with "planes" we have the same problem.

    Though, I must admit Jenny humbled me when I was grumbling about the difficulty of locating old parts by pointing out how recent aviation is, compared to the invention of (and need for replacement parts for) firearms!

    Good luck to you!

    wv: mooni. No, I don't have a mooney, it's a taylorcraft.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Thanks for the clarification, Tam.

    WV: Pronit. Are you looking for parts for those too? Sounds Warsaw Pact-ish.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Ah, the plight of the ultra-refined.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Tam: Siamese replacement, try a 1914 Enfield follower and spring, and a bit of filing for and aft to bring in the length.

    ReplyDelete
  14. I just ran into a pretty good Gew.98 stock, so if anyone has a nice clean one with cut off wood...

    ReplyDelete
  15. The problem with my Gew.98, if one would consider it a problem, is that it's a Weimar-era refit (what they call a "transitional").

    Spandau '16 receiver with intact crown, but no two numbers match on the whole gun (I'm serious; not two parts on that gun originated on the same weapon, down to the barrel bands) and it has those tangent sights instead of the lange vizier.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Tam, alot of people seem to be looking for Ross "Military" wood, in order to "put 'em right". What most people don't know is that most of the sporters were never military rifles, but rather commercial sporters. They're easy enough to tell the difference - most of the commercial sporters have nice stocks, while the bubba'd guns have hacked up military stocks, that look like, well, hacked up military stocks.

    ReplyDelete
  17. I could use a Gew98 stock. Hell, there's lines of folks looking for those.

    Best Gunshop Day Ever was about a year ago, my gunshop had bought out the estate of a gunsmith. I got a Czech silvertip crate filled with barrel bands. It was like a grisly boneyard of treasures- Mannlicher-Schonauer bands, so many M1903 Springfield front sights you'd cry, a set of M-91 Remington Mosin bands, Ross midband, Trapdoor bands, four or five Arisaka triggerguards, lots of neat bits.

    Saddest part was the German middle-band-and-nosecap pairs with matching serial numbers.

    My big hunt right now is a Swedish Mauser safety and cockingpiece. Too cheap and lazy to order one, so I keep scouring the gunshows hoping to find one in a junk bin.

    Did find a Win-Lee 1895 bayo today, though.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Internals for a Hopkins and Allen Safety Police in .32, large frame, five shot, before the rains.

    Rob, I paid $375 for that Vest Pocket's twin just a few months ago at the Lakeland gun show.

    ReplyDelete
  19. mcthag,

    Nice catch at that price! I think I paid $125 for my '14-vintage Vest Pocket (without a trace of blue left.)

    ReplyDelete
  20. Belay that last: My Vest Pocket dates to 1916.

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.