Travels and gun shows

We wished Dave a fond farewell a couple of weeks back and have been settling in to work sans curator.  No word on the search for a new curator, but we hope to have someone in place this fall.

I returned home from the Denver gun show last Monday (May 18).  It was a good weekend; we did around 150 serial number searches, eight Cody Firearms Museum memberships and a number of Factory Letters.  I wish I could make it to the Orangeville, Ontario show on May 31 as I am in the area visiting family, but unfortunately, I fly back to Wyoming that day.  We are looking forward to the two big gun shows in Cody in a couple of weeks.  The Winchester Club of America show is June 12-14 and the Winchester Arms Collectors Association show is June 19-21.  Makes for a couple of long weeks for us, but we enjoy seeing old friends and making new ones.

More Bad Guns

We were offered right of first refusal on a Bill Cody-related gun. This guns had a signed affidavit (from 1925) describing the history as a gift from Buffalo Bill to the seller (a long-time friend of Cody’s supposedly) in 1876. The seller of the gun was in dire financial straits and needed to sell the gun. The selling price, you ask? $1.00. Granted, this was 1925 and the dollar went a lot further, but one would imagine that you could get more mileage out of the Buffalo Bill association.

Regardless, we looked up the gun and determined that the gun was not made until 1904. Also, relying on the Buffalo Bill Museum’s list of people known to have relationships with Buffalo Bill, we found no mention of the seller.

We took a pass.

An Exciting Project

Everything is still pencil-and-paper (as opposed to being set in stone), but we are looking at introducing a very exciting project – a Buffalo Bill Historical Center-approved reproduction firearm. Based on designs held in our archive and objects in our collection, we are teaming up with other Cody-area craftsmen to make a series of high-end, collector’s grade firearms that we feel will be of interest.

More on this later.

Cheers,

Dave

Firearms Conservation Post

My brain strayed to some of my previous posts and I recalled referencing conservation and care of antique firearms. I thought I would post this link on Firearms Conservation. The document was written by David Arnold, former Conservator at the Springfield Armory, National Historic Site. I won’t go into the details, but the position was eliminated earlier this year. I have a number of issues with the decision, but I am not the Superintendent of the Site.

Have a great weekend!

Dave K.