Once upon a time when the world was young and so was I, my Dad called to say a friend of his was closing his "camp" and had some old guns he wanted to get rid of before the place sold, and was I interested in looking them over. I was. Long story short, Dad and I visited his friend and looked over the guns he wanted to sell. All were antiques, ranging from a flintlock that was missing the top jaw and top jaw screw from the lock, through an 1861 Springfield, a Trap Door, two carbines, and one very rusty small percussion revolver. He wanted to keep one to leave hanging over the fireplace mantle but didn't care which one, and he quoted a price for the rest that was more than reasonable. I was in college at the time and cash poor, so Dad offered to go "halves" on the deal if I was interested. I told his friend up front that his price was low if he was willing to wait for collectors to look at the pieces but he was content with what he asked. We paid him, left him the Trapdoor for a fireplace decoration, and loaded the rest in our vehicle. Driving home, Dad asked me if I thought the guns were worth what we paid. I did. The little revolver cleaned up nicely. It was a Bacon Arms .31 caliber copy of the Colt 1848 Pocket model, engraved, with rosewood grips. Aside from the rust it's only problem was that its mainspring was broken. Got a new one from DGW for about $2. The flintlock was an original 1803 Harper's Ferry Rifle, in very good condition aside from the missing top jaw and screw and a missing ramrod. I replaced the missing parts with original parts from a well known dealer in NYC and the rifle was fully functional again.
