New Old Guy

As a younger man back in the early 90's, I bought a mixmaster Arlington import at my local gun show to use for a 4-wheeler gun. It was short, high cap, and the ammo was fairly cheap. I took it apart to clean, saw all the markings, and caught the fever. I read all the available literature at the time...war baby, Riesch's little handbook, and Jess Harrison's handbook. I never joined the old school carbine club because Jess bad mouthed it and I didn't really feel the need. I was unmarried and had some disposable income. I went to a lot of show and even went with Jess Harrison to the big Tulsa OK show a few times. I gleaned some knowledge from him...mostly how to spot fake stuff, granted the fakes then where usually amateur and unsophisticated. This was also before the internet really took off. My networking was mostly old school then but by the end the decade, I was emailing contacts and searching the great innovation known as GunBroker. I have an anal retentive and obsessive compulsive streak in me and all I wanted in my collection was "bring backs." My collection consisted of mostly 100% original guns...with provenance. The ones that were not were the ones that fooled me from the outside appearance.  Remember, that time frame was when we were loosing a lot of WWII vets and their idiot grandsons were taking pap's gun to the show. I bought a lot of them coming in the door and couldn't take the time to break them down. The ones that fooled me I usually turned over unless it was an easy and righteous looking restoration with matching finish and patina. I got married in 2004 and lost the time and disposable income to continue buying guns...which was ok by me as I will elaborate in the next paragraph.

   Throughout my short but prolific and intense collecting years. I noticed some trends. Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers ruined my hobby. The prices started to skyrocket as every idiot had to have carbine now. They got more scarce and more pricey by the year. This brought out the fakers, counterfeiters and liars. Repop parts were everywhere...mostly out of Minnesota. Anyone remember him? Honestly, they were easy to spot...then. Then came cartouche stamps. Slow at first but then every POS stock had a perfect deep stamp. Jesse Harrison's handbook had a clear overlay sheet of the manufacturer's cartouches and he had mentioned to me once that all a counterfeiter had to do was copy his overlay to make stamps. I once sent a stock to Jess to be lightly cleaned. When it came back, there was a Standard Products cartouche that I had not noticed before. He stated he had discovered it under all the dirt and grim that was on the stock. I quickly distanced myself from him after that. I think it was a very early attempt on his part to manufacture the stamps. I don't know if he became the start of that trend or if someone else beat him to the punch. He passed a few years ago. A few years later I noticed people selling those damn stamps on Ebay. I had had enough by then and I was dating a beautiful woman, which took my time and money.

  Why am I here now? I have three teenage daughters and I will soon need college money. I think my stewardship is starting to end and I will never again have my previous passion. I am here to network and advertise. I am here to build trust. I never was nor wished to be on the carbine collector world's radar, and I believe that was a mistake now. Please allow me to participate and make a few friends. I plan to in the near future offer up some primo guns for sale. I don't really like the Gunbroker route with the sales tax and auction fees added. I paid a premium price at the time for a worthy rifle, so they will not be cheap. I will fully disclose any restoration parts. These will be very few as I did not really like restoring guns and searching for parts...it was such pain finding real parts with original and appropriate finish.

 My knowledge is dated now; I'm sure new facts and info has been presented in the last 18 years of which I am unaware. I do think I might have a few nuggets that is not common knowledge to share.

Regards,

Ron

That gave me flashbacks to me trying to post my first picture. Oh the horror.