The gun show I went to was a big one in Tulsa last November that is billed as the world's largest. I found some incredible deals on blued steel and walnut stocked bolt action ceterfires. And that was refreshing compared to the recent past, where it seemed like everything was "tacti-cool." It was also timely becasue I was in the market for a new rifle, and still prefer old-school blued steel and walnut. It didn't seem to me like much of it was moving, though.
I picked up an "N.I.B." condition Remington Model 721 in .270. I almost passed because I'd rather have a .30-'06 but this isn't my first time at the .270 Rodeo, either, and you don't often get the chance to buy a brand spankin' new sixty year old anything, let alone a brand new condition sixty year old shooter. So I bought it.
The tagged price was $850.00. High for a 721, I suppose, but this looked like a brand new rifle. The seller said it belonged to a neighbor who had won it at some kind of company Christmas party way back when, stuffed it in a closet, and never used it. A likely story from a gun show dealer guy, I know, but.......
I asked if it would be okay if I removed the bolt and had a look at the bore. That was no problem, and the seller handed me a bore light without me having to whip mine out of my pocket. I withdrew the bolt and was surprised that it came right out without having depressed the bolt release. The bolt had traces of brownish, waxy stuff on it. The rifling in the bore looked sharp, but.... Anyhow, I stuck the bolt back in and pulled it out again without having to hit the release button. The bolt stop wasn't springing back in to place. Hmmmmm....
I asked the seller if he could demonstrate how to release the bolt. He asked me why I was asking, since I had already removed it twice. I told him that I removed it without hitting the release. He tried it, it did the same thing for him, and he put the bolt back in and set the rifle back down on the table, saying, "Well, I guess you aren't interested in a broken rifle, uh."
Well, no, not at $850.00, I wasn't. I offered him $400.00 plus tax. He countered with $425.00 plus tax. I countered with $400.00 out the door. This was fifteen minutes before the closing of the show, and I pointed out that he wasn't too likely to find a last minute buyer for it who would offer him that much. So he took the $400.00 if I agreed to let him keep the box. The box didn't mean anything to me, because I wasn't buying the rifle to keep in a box. I was buying it with the full intent of using it, and it wouldn't be N.I.B. after I sent a couple of hundered rounds down the bore, anyhow.
When I got the rifle home, I took the barreled action out of the stock and cleaned the bore. It had a bunch of brown, waxlike goop in it. That same goop was all over the metal of the rifle. It was preventing the spring from pushing the bolt stop up. With the goop removed, the thing functions flawlessly.
It is one of the most accurate sporter-weight centerfire bolt actions I've ever shot. I got it sighted in and carried it during the modern gun deer season.
I guess I got lucky with that deal.
But I saw a thing on an NRA website recenetly about the bolt action hunting rifle market being "soft" for new sales. I got to thinking, too, about all of the people I used to hunt with. Most of them were a lot older than I am -some by as much as 30 or 40 years. Most hung up their hunting boots 20 years ago being too old and infirm to hunt. But they kept their guns for their disinterested kids and widows to dispose of. We had a big hunting camp going on -upwards of 30 guys sharing it. Sounds like a crowd, but it bordered a National Forest on two sides with plenty of acrage for guys to spread out on. I'm the last one of the group still alive except for my dad, who hasn't hunted for nearly 20 years now, and an uncle, who sold all of his guns recently.
The point is that just with the people that I knew, there are enough guns now in play in the used market to stock a pretty cool classic rifle shop. These guys used their stuff but they used it with care and took care of it, for the most part.
I can't think that my situation is too different. Maybe in modern day whitetail country, it seems alien, but I bet it doesn't in the mule deer and blacktail country of the western states. If the story about my rifle is true, about the guy winning it as a door prize at a Christmas party, he's probably not the only fella who got a gun this way. It didn't cost him anything, didn't take up a lot of space, so if he wanted to use it, he had it to use.
I think a lot of this old-school stuff that I still like is going to hit the market like a flood for several reasons. Supply and demand being what it is, my expectation is that stuff that seemed so outrageous 20 years ago is going to be dirt cheap when it hits the market in the coming years.
There just isn't as much demand for that old school stuff as their used to be. My local gun shop has a pre-64 Winchester for $650 that is in very good condition. If it was an '06 and not a .300 Mag, it wouldn't still be in the shop but would be in my gun room instead.
The other thing at play, too, is that you can buy a new bolt action in a plastic stock so cheap nowadays that "some old gun with a wood stock" is viewed by many as just that when such wasn't the case during my formative years.
JP
