Hey guys, you think you got “Handi-holic-itis” bad.
I was in West Virginia this last weekend to visit an Uncle-in-law at a nursing home, a great old guy, WWII man, always good to talk to him about his good ol’days.
Passed a small gun shop on the way, on the way back I had to stop and check it out of course. Gun shop is the type we all know, small, maybe 20’x 40’ building, dark and rustic inside, owner in the only employee. It had the required minimum of just two guys sitting and talking with the owner. He had maybe 10 NEW guns and everything else was used and/or on consignment. After the usual mandatory hello banter with the fellows, my eyes started to do their search of the racks of guns. To savor the moment in a new shop my eyes go from left to right one at a time to see if I could identify each, trying not to hurry ahead just because the one currently focused on held no interest to me. As soon as my eyes saw it, the excitement made me want pick it up, of course it was a Buffalo Classic. But I contained myself and continued my scan of the rest, because I knew I was being watched and didn’t want to show my excitement. I picked up one of the other rifles and pretended to check it. Finally I stood in front of the BC and just looked at it, noticing the paper tag tied to the trigger guard, it read “45-70”, as if everybody didn’t know that. With nervous excitement, picked it up from the rack, the familiar feel was there. Took the paper tag and turned it over to see if there was a price. $250 was crossed out and $225 stood out. Could not believe it; next thought was “what is wrong with it?” Walked over to owner and asked him if I take it outside in the sunlight. The wood had not a mark or a scratch anywhere, the metal was the same, the bore just perfect. Took it back inside, said “I'll take it”. Owner was pleased, told me the man who was selling was on hard times, and anyway the rifle had too much kick for his liking. A partial box of Remington 405 gr. soft points came with it, 16 rounds were still in it. They told me that it only had 4 shots thru it, and he was going back to his 30-30 Winchester. I left there a little gitty with my newest BC.
Here is the “Handi-holic-itis” part, this is now my 6th BC… I know… I know… but I just can’t help it, besides I have 9 grandchildren, logically I need 3 more … Right?
Mike
