I had been saving for months for this gun show, wanting to find a decent quality 1911. The new computer last month pretty much wiped that idea off the map, but I was still hopeful. Those hopes pretty much tanked when I saw the pricetags on most of the guns I looked at. Until today. Yesterday this guy was selling his NIB Norinco 1911A1 for $400. Today it was $300. I stopped, looked, handled it a bit, walked on. As the day went on, I kept an eye on it but it didnt move. Stopped and talked to the guy a few times, eventually I asked him about the gun. He said he traded for it and has never used it, it sits in his safe at home. His wife is forcing him to clean out the safe of guns he will not use. We haggled a bit, and I took it for $250. Went out in the hallway and did a little happy dance.
Yesterday I picked up a couple of badly neglected black powder guns for projects, the gem of which is a nice little '51 Colt Navy that the previous owner had abandoned as hopeless. It needs a new hand spring, a new latch on the end of the loading rod, and alot of cleaning. Otherwise it's very serviceable and will make a nice conversion project. I want to try to manufacture a match for my original Richards and Mason conversion gun. I have 20 bucks in it, not a bad start. The other is a '58 Remington, in worse shape but still saveable. It needs more work though, and will be a real project. I'm cutting the barrel, lightening the mainspring, and replacing the ugly post front sight with a nice blade. I'm going to fill in the loading rod hole and relieve the metal on the right side of the recoil sheild for a loading gate, and install a cartridge conversion system that looks like an original Remington factory conversion. I stripped down both guns and started making a list of what needs replacement and what can be re-used. This is going to be a blast!
