i went to a local gun auction today right after work and was it ever a good day to be into old milsurps . .. actualy it was a great auction for all milsurps .
i got there just a few minutes before the auction started so i didnt have a lot of time to preview anything .
the first thing that came up and caught my eye was a .41 swiss 69 pattern ... typical swiss condition stock is decent and outside metal is in good shape .. bore with just a quick glance was bright shiny with strong rifling ... i put the first bid in at $50 ... one other bid for 75 and i won it for $100 .
next up was a very very nice rolling block .. wood looked nearly perfect , all metal had at least 95% of the origonal finish .. bore looked as new .... there is one catch ... the tag just said .43 caliber .. and i didnt see if it was egyption , spanish or reformado ... my winning bid was $235 .. hopefully it isnt a reformado .
a bit later a dutch beaumont rifle came up ... i didnt get much of a look at it . outside it looks average maybe a bit better with the muzzle showing strong rifling ... no idea as to bore condition as i had no time to look .... my winning bid ..$115 .
there was a pretty good selection of other milsurps there ...about 200 all told .. most prices came in lower then i expected them to be with quite a few outright great deals ... a couple nice looking 03a3's sold for under $300 .. if i hadnt already blew my wad one of them would have came home with me ... a very nice looking unmolested krag sold for $275 ... i almost cried being out of money .
all three of the rifles i bought will be shooters eventualy ... the .41 swiss i already have a good head start my nieghbor is set up to convert it to center fire and has offered the use of his dies and a properly dimensioned heeled bullet mold ( provided my bore is close to his )
as to the rolling block and beaumont .... hopefully the rolling block isnt a reformado , if so itll have to wait untill i can afford to rebarrel it .
and i do admit .. i know next to nothing about the beaumont rifles . i'm hpeing that the 11.3-50 mm
equates into something closely resembling a 50-70
hopefully i can find a camera to borow tomarow after i pick them up and post a few pics