Springfield Gunshow.

[Russ T Frizzen]

I went to the Springfield Gunshow today looking for parts for three antique Winchesters that I'm restoring. I didn't find anything I could use, but I did see some interesting muzzleloaders.

The first one was a T-C .56 smoothbore in fine condition for $100.00. The dealer said no one had looked at it until I came along. Hard to believe.

A little further on was a nice Hopkins and Allen underhammer. I believe they were asking $129.00 for it and it too looked hardly used.

A couple of aisles over I found a CVA Mountain rifle for $99.00! I couldn't find a ding anywhere on it. And the barrel said made in the U.S.A! The dealer said nobody had shown any interest in it at all.

One disappointment was a pair of Austin and Halleck Mountain rifles at the same table. They were asking over a $1000.00 each and the quality of these rifles was dismal at best--poor fits and gaps and ripples evident on both guns. But the oddest thing was a hump part way down the top of the wrist where the tang ended. There was a very obvious knuckle in the profile of the wrist that I don't recall seeing on other A&H rifles. Bizarre.

There were a lot more there, but one of the sweetest was a southern mountain style rifle with hand forged fittings and quality parts made about 35 years ago. It had a Bill Large barrel and a Russ Hamm Maslin style lock (which probably will need some tweaking by now) and it was light and beautifully balanced. Made by C. or G. Bird. Does anyone know of this builder?

Having failed to find anything that would fit my Winchesters, we were heading out when I spotted a swivel breech rifle on a table amid a bunch of other guns. It was in fine shape and well made. No name or any other marks on it. The swivel mechanism was as tight as when new. So I did what any rational person would do when they failed to find parts for their breechloaders--I bought another muzzleloader. I don't really need another caplock since I mostly shoot flintlocks but on the other hand, I don't really NOT need one either! :rotf:

 

[Swampman]

The T/C & the Mountain Rifle, would have parted out for about $600.00.

 

[silverfox]

Of all the bad luck. I went to a gunshow today also. It had the normal Mod 700, a Hawken with lots of rust and patches no maker or other marks. Then at another table I almost lost my cookies looking at the damage that was done. There were 2 German ML's one a nice Jager in about .60 cal and the other a fowler in about 12ga. Shape and style was nice wood patch boxes on both. What was wrong?? They had every piece of metal except the barrels chrome plated including the sights and the finish was thick polyurathane like the tables at a beer joint. Price take your pick $3000 they just came from a European Estate??? Dealer said they were original must think we are dumb down
here. Biggest shame is all the metal was polished so far that there was no marks on any of it. Lost forever a lot of fine engraving.
Wish we had a show like yours in our area instead of the usual junk.
Fox :thumbsup:

 

[torn moc]

how about going back and pickin up that underhammer for me??
And where the pics of the swivel?

 

[Russ T Frizzen]

I'll get some batteries for the camera and try to post some photos. I may go back tomorrow and pick up the little souhern mountain rifle if it's still there. Anybody ever heard of a builder named C. or G. Bird? He was probably active in the '60s and '70s.

 

[jtmattison]

Some guys have all the luck!

I never see any muzzleloaders at the gun shows here.



HD

 

[bdhutier]

I just bought the T/C Renegade .50 @ our gun show last weekend. Great condition, and really cheap. Same thing here, there really isn't much interest.

Fine by me... just translated into a good deal!

 

[Russ T Frizzen]

The nice thing is that I can't recall seeing a single in-line in the entire place! Lots of Colt 2nd and 3rd gen and some fine Ruger C&B revolvers all at reasonable prices. Plenty of fine antique muzzleloaders at all sorts of prices.

So far I haven't found anything on the maker of the southern mountain rifle so I'm not sure I'll go back for it. Still it does have that Bill Large barrel...

 

[bdhutier]

Anybody ever heard of a builder named C. or G. Bird? He was probably active in the '60s and '70s.

Found some stuff here:

As is evident, the lock is marked “C. Bird and Co. - Philada Warranted” and was originally a flintlock (fig. 22). It was converted to percussion, however this conversion took place prior to it being utilized upon this rifle: this rifle was built as a percussion piece. The lock is relatively small at 4 5/16 by 13/16 inches. According to Kaufman’s The Pennsylvania-Kentucky Rifle, Charles Bird and Company were Philadelphia lock/hardware merchants ca. 1814; this dating seems fairly accurate, being that these locks are by no means uncommon and are most often found upon arms constructed ca. 1810 through 1830.

Also, for an interesting link to a .pdf file from Librarycompany.org CLICK HERE.

 

[Little Wattsy]

:hatsoff: :hatsoff:

 

[Russ T Frizzen]

Well, I did it. Went back and got the rifle. A closer look showed it has a Douglas barrel, not a Bill Large barrel, but that's fine with me. 43" long in .45 caliber and the rifle weighs just over 6 pounds. Plain walnut stock and the only furniture consists of a couple of ramrod ferrules and a nice handforged trigger guard. And best of all, the seller knocked $150.00 off the price!

I checked on the CVA Mountain rifle and the .56 caliber Renegade. The Mountain rifle was sold, and the table that the Renegade was on was empty. The people at the next table said that they'd left early yeaterday and hadn't come back today. Guess business was really bad.