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View Full Version : Interesting air rifle for sale



waksupi
09-25-2013, 03:08 AM
It sounds like this guy has dry fired the rifle some, which isn't good. However, I'm kind of wondering if collecting of old unusual air rifles may not be the next "sleeper" collecting phase? You know what happened with old cheap military arms!

http://www.gunauction.com/buy/10876045/air-gun/air-gun-rifles/original-.25-cal-bugelspanner-parlor-rifle-nice

waksupi
09-25-2013, 03:10 AM
http://www.gunauction.com/buy/11255899/air-gun/air-pistols/hubertus-.22-cal-rifled-pre-war-rare-air-pistol

Another collectable.

waksupi
09-25-2013, 03:12 AM
http://www.gunauction.com/buy/10867859/air-gun/air-gun-rifles/markham-chicago-maple-wood-air-rifle-super-rare

waksupi
09-25-2013, 03:16 AM
http://www.gunauction.com/buy/10871704/air-gun/air-gun-rifles/original-will-bugelspanner

waksupi
09-25-2013, 03:17 AM
http://www.gunauction.com/buy/10874433/air-gun/air-gun-rifles/antique-air-cane-.42-cal-smoothbore-with-pump

NoZombies
09-25-2013, 05:52 AM
I've long wanted an antique air cane. One of these days I'll find one in an antique shop and get it for a song.

(That might be wishful thinking)

Bent Ramrod
09-25-2013, 04:28 PM
Those guns began to hit the "collector" market in the mid-80's. The first edition of Air Gun Digest was edited by Robert Beeman and had an extensive section on collecting air guns. After that book came out, I noticed the prices of all of the obsolete air guns that had been made in America, Germany or Britain started to go up. Then the two Dennis Hiller books, published in England in the late '70's, started showing up at the gun book dealers' here. No better way to make something a "collector's item" than to write a book about it.

The "Bugelspanners" also used to be called "St. Louis Air Rifles," if I recall. They were used in a lot of city arcade shooting galleries and are not uncommon. The one I have is .25 caliber, but it is not rifled. I guess you could shoot darts and stuff in them as well as pellets. Some of them had a crank to wind the spring for the piston, but most I've seen used the trigger guard as a cocking lever. Mine isn't particularly accurate, powerful or all that well made, but it is an interesting curio anyway.

The "Chicago" BB gun was always what Daisy referred to as the ancestral mechanism for their own early guns, so a Daisy collection without that one is like a Winchester collection without a Henry rifle in it.

Probably the brand I like the best are the old Benjamins, made in St. Louis. I grew up reading their uniquely worded advertising in the back pages of Popular Science and the hunting and outdoor mags, so to me they are triple-distilled Americana, and pretty nicely put together, too, for what they were. But what I'd really like is a specimen of the Westley Richards "Highest Possible."