Expensive hunt! Bought a pair of Colt Cowboys on the way there. No rabbits!

[Four Fingers of Death]

Off to the next town to have a hunt in a state forest there. Never hunted it before, but fancied a couple of rabbits for the pot, so took my old Brno Model 2 22LR.

On the edge of the forest, I dropped into a gunsmith friend to say hello. he had the most amazing 1903 Springfield German style custom rifle. It was a great uy at $4500, but wayyyyy out of my league ( knowing how you guys like 1903s, I took some pics of it and handed it back ( I will put up a separate post when I figure out what forum to put it in). My friend said, well I can't sell you that one, but I have something you won't be able to resist. He popped out back and came back with a box containing two Colt Cowboys in 45Colt. One has been used a bit, but the second one seems new. 'I said how much do you want for them?' My friend said '$1000 (AU). I asked 'each?' He said 'your grasp of the spoken English is slipping, you asked for a price of them, not what each one cost, the pair are $1000.'

I have the **** out of my pants at the moment and no way I can come up with that sort of money, so I offered my very original 1949 built M70 in 270. It owes me more that $1000 and I could get more than that for it, but I will have to knock it on the head and leave some fat for him. He likes the sound of the deal, but wants to see the rifle first, which is natural. He put them aside for me.

I use two Pietta Colt clones in 44/40 (they are actually nicer than the Cowboys) and two Ruger NM Vaqs in 45Colt for cowboy action, I have been humming and haaring about which set to keep, now they are both at risk, haha!

I went hunting didn't see anything other than a few pretty parrots. Expensive hunt, no dinner!

I also forgot to take pics! D'Oh!

[pmer]

I know how you feel. I'm currently nibbling on a 7.5" 45 Colt Redhawk. I don't need to spend the money but I hardly ever see one for sale with the longer barrel.

Bring some sized boolits with you when you show him the Model 70, it might help you decide.

[Forty Rod Ray]

Respectfully, may I urge caution when trading off the Md 70 270.... I felt that I could live without a similar vintage Md 70 in 375 H&H. A great shooter, it did very well with cast. I only regret this transaction once, and that is every morning....

Warmest regards.......

[Four Fingers of Death]

I have two 270s, the M70 and a 700 Remington. The 270 is my main jacketed bullet hunting rifle. Bit of a shame to drag the M70 up hill and down dale. The 700 has a black plastic stock, so it can take the knocks.

[littlejack]

Hey to ya Mick. Good to see you are still upright and taking on nourishment.
All the best to you in Ausi land.
Regards
Jack

[Four Fingers of Death]

Thanks, Jack. i have a permit for one already, I picked up a brand new Pietta 44/40 in a trade a year or two ago and never got around to picking it up. I will definitly sell that now and will use the permt to pick one up straight away and will probably get the other on in a few weeks when the permit arrives. We don't have a cooling off period for second and subsequent guns, but they are about to change the rules to make it more or a hassle to get a permit, so shooters are buying up like crazy and this is causing the registry to take about 2 weeks to process them (there is 2 day postage to them with an express envelope and 2-3 days return via ordinary mail, so between 2-3 weeks at the moment.

I have hardly been using the 45s of late and have over a thousand Winchester brass and about the same in MagTecs. 44/40 M/T seem ok in pistols, but don't like rifles at all. I don't know how the 45 would go in rifles, but it is academic as I don't own one, haha). I will use the magtecs for practice. It was a shame to see that 45 brass going to waste,lol.

[Four Fingers of Death]

Drove 40 miles to the gunsmith today with the Model 70. I had an appointment for today and he had promised to keep them aside for me until I came in. when I arrived, he spun a tale about the family (the guns are part of an estate) coming in and complaining that the prices were too low. He went on to say that they were accepting offers and that he had three others interested in them and that they had placed offers. So I withdrew.

I have a feeling that he s BS'ing me and has had a better offer as he said no one had seen them before as they had just arrived. Also I think he was originally interested in getting the Model 70, but today his wife was in the shop and said that they couldn't do a trade as they didn't own the pistols (I think he was going to pay out the estate for the guns and keep the rifle.

Whatever, the deal is dead in the water and I still have a nice Model 70 and am pretty well fixed for pistols. We move on. Thanks for the comments guys.

[cajun shooter]

Mick, In your original post you stated that you dropped in to see a gunsmith friend. I suggest you think this over a bit as he is no friend if he crawfished his way out of a verbal agreement.
I have owned and shot the Colt Cowboys in SASS competition. They are not the same as the real Colt SAA guns of western lore. They have floating firing pins with the transfer bar action.
Many rumors came out that the Cowboy guns were made in some overseas plant and that was not true. In fact many of the Cowboy models were made in the Colt custom shop and have a z in the S/N that shows this. They only sold 140 Cowboys in 1998 and that is when I purchased mine. They sold a total of just about 14,000 when it was decided to cease production. They also did not hit it off with the Colt crowd because they only had a two click action as opposed to the 4 clicks of a Colt SAA.
I see them selling here for $600 to $800 on Gun Broker. The price will go up.Take Care David

[1bluehorse]

Think I'd go with Cajun Shooter on that one...."gunsmith friend" would become "gunsmith acquaintance"....and rarely.....

[Four Fingers of Death]

He may have been telling the truth, I have known him for years, he is a retired regular Army soldier with two tours of Vietnam as a grunt and has a bit of a drinking problem, he is just as liable to have forgotten, he wouldn't know if he was coming or going some days, but he does exceptional gunsmithing work, specialising in shotguns, double rifles and top dollar stock work. He was all but off his face today, so I will cut him a bit of slack, he walked through the jungle for two years, I didn't.