Entertaining read

[Garvin]

Nice article by Tom Gaylord on the restoration of his Falke 90.

Extract:

"Ever have a good deal rammed down your throat? You know what I mean -- no matter which way you turn, this deal follows you, demanding to be honored. Mine started like this -- a guy comes up to me and says, "You won't believe what I have for you! You're going to love this!" Already, it sounds like a hard-sell insurance sales pitch to me. How does he know what I like?

This kind of approach usually marks the beginning of something so horrible that you need a tetanus shot just to look at it. Usually, but not always. Sometimes, the deal really is good, and you don't find out how good until long after the deal is done.

This happened at an airgun show a couple years ago. I was sitting at my table, and the guy came by saying those words -- more or less. I knew he was a good guy who would normally play straight, but I was still put off by the approach. Curiosity (and greed) tempered my demeanor, though, and I followed him back to his table on the outside chance that he might have a One of One-Thousand Winchester '73, still in the original box. Just because you smell horse dung doesn't mean there isn't a pony. Does it?

A train wreck!

What he showed me was a heap of wood and metal parts that used to be an airgun of some sort. It was definitely in NRA Disgusting condition.

I see the same kind of thing at gun shows. Two antique gentlemen are seated at a table, pouring over a pile of rust and splinters that has their undivided attention. If I listen carefully, I can hear their conversation.

"No, according to my sources, Winchester didn't use the stamp with the broken 'e' after the Spanish-American war. Now, this receiver might have been on hand from an earlier time and was set aside for special finishing that never got done. Then, when they reorganized the company and cleaned out the back room, they found it and stuck it back into production. That's the only explanation I can think of."

I always thought, "Who cares?" But now I was actually one of the two men. The airgun he showed me was tired, rusty, non-functional and had a cracked, scratched and dented stock into which some clever tramp artist had punched initials on the left side. The overall shape looked familiar, yet I couldn't quite place it. First, I thought it was one thing, and then another, but no airgun I knew was exactly like it."


Rest of the article here: http://www.thegodfatherofairguns.com/falke-90.html



PS I'm aware that Tom references the Falke 'chat' forum, but that is not why I've linked to this article - as people who know me would testify, I don't care how many people visit my forums and have no interest whatever in 'driving' traffic towards them.

[Rob M]

Thanks for that - A good read.