Avatar
Search
Forum Scope




Match



Forum Options



Minimum search word length is 3 characters - maximum search word length is 84 characters
Lost password?
sp_Feed sp_PrintTopic sp_TopicIcon
Buy gun, not story?
sp_NewTopic Add Topic
Avatar
Member
WACA Guest
Forum Posts: 491
Member Since:
January 19, 2017
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline
1
December 18, 2021 - 11:40 pm
sp_Permalink sp_Print sp_EditHistory sp_QuotePost

Thought you guys might have a field day with all the Little Big Horn guns (Winchesters and Colts).  True or not?  The write ups had my Spidey sense a tingling. Laugh  Gun at Little Big Horn AND with Apache’s.  And POTUS Lincoln rifle to son on 12th B-day?  

https://www.auctionzip.com/auction-lot/cave-gun-from-geronimo-mangas-camp-possibly-carri_CC64E4396C

Avatar
NY
Member
Restricted
Forum Posts: 7119
Member Since:
November 1, 2013
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline
2
December 19, 2021 - 12:43 am
sp_Permalink sp_Print sp_QuotePost

Quite a story–puts “Dads Old Guns” to shame.  But if the Apache tribe has heard of it, & believes the story, I wouldn’t want to be owner of the gun when the federal lawsuit is filed to reclaim it.

Avatar
Northern edge of the D/FW Metromess
Member
WACA Member
Forum Posts: 5637
Member Since:
November 7, 2015
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline
3
December 19, 2021 - 6:33 pm
sp_Permalink sp_Print sp_QuotePost

Sounds like it could be the real thing. At the very least the faker has done his homework. If the provenance stacks up I’m sure someone would be a proud owner. It’s apparently been collector-owned and discussed in print for some time, doubtful the Apache will make a claim since they haven’t already. Stranger things have happened.

 

Mike

Life Member TSRA, Endowment Member NRA
BBHC Member, TGCA Member
Smokeless powder is a passing fad! -Steve Garbe
I hate rude behavior in a man. I won't tolerate it. -Woodrow F. Call, Lonesome Dove
Some of my favorite recipes start out with a handful of depleted counterbalance devices.-TXGunNut
Presbyopia be damned, I'm going to shoot this thing! -TXGunNut
Avatar
NY
Member
Restricted
Forum Posts: 7119
Member Since:
November 1, 2013
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline
4
December 19, 2021 - 7:18 pm
sp_Permalink sp_Print sp_QuotePost

TXGunNut said
 It’s apparently been collector-owned and discussed in print for some time, doubtful the Apache will make a claim since they haven’t already.

Yes, but museums all over the country have been compelled to return Indian artifacts acquired legally a century or more ago.  The story about burial in a cave may be an Apache custom, but if so it was on tribal land, & it’s hard to believe the tribe giving permission to anyone to disturb a grave site.  And if they did, wouldn’t whomever acquired the gun want something in writing not only to confirm its authenticity, but to prove he hadn’t looted it?

Avatar
Member
WACA Guest
Forum Posts: 491
Member Since:
January 19, 2017
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline
5
December 19, 2021 - 7:53 pm
sp_Permalink sp_Print sp_QuotePost

There are some other guns in the auction.  Having read the write-ups, here is what I come away “feeling”:  I’m in my early 60s and I been told by old men since I was in my teens that Old Colts and Winchesters have been “of interest” for a very long time.  It would not surprise me if legitimate museums and collectors “bought the story” for a low price, clear back as early as the late 1800s.  Hell, western movies started in 1894: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Western_films_before_1920#1894

One of those guns was selling as provenance a 1947 auction/sale statement by a then-seller.  Excuse me!  But if that same thing happened back, in say, 1902, or 1895, then jeesh, it seems time itself has started it’s own “boostrapping” phenomena.

If these guns are straight up, you’d think they’d have letter from Kopek or one of you guys, at least saying the dates and configurations line up.  X-ray the serial # under the leather?

I suppose I probably find this stuff of more interest that some, because I like the dark metal and wood and story.  Whereas many want a virgin.  But if it were me, I’d have an expert all over the gun before I shelled out $10k +.

The Lincoln gun for sure.

Oh well, it’s not like I’ll be bidding.  But I am interested to read what you all are saying.

 

  

Avatar
Member
WACA Member
Forum Posts: 1798
Member Since:
June 4, 2017
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline
6
December 19, 2021 - 8:19 pm
sp_Permalink sp_Print sp_EditHistory sp_QuotePost

 That’s a 3rd model receiver, maybe made after 1882, how does that get back to 1876 to be carried at the Little Big Horn. The butt stock could be a First model that came off a gun made before June 1876. Many Indians use their guns to tell past stories and the stock is easy to mark or change. T/R

Avatar
RickC
Guest
WACA Guest
7
December 19, 2021 - 8:31 pm
sp_Permalink sp_Print sp_QuotePost

I’m with Huck. I would think a seller or a museum would be all over a piece like this… not with auctionzip.

Avatar
Wisconsin
Member
WACA Member
Forum Posts: 4497
Member Since:
May 2, 2009
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline
8
December 19, 2021 - 9:10 pm
sp_Permalink sp_Print sp_QuotePost

It originally was a musket that had a saber.

Bob

WACA Life Member---
NRA Life Member----
Cody Firearms member since 1991
Researching the Winchester 1873's

73_86cutaway.jpg

Email: [email protected]

Forum Timezone: UTC 0
Most Users Ever Online: 4623
Currently Online: [email protected]
Guest(s) 155
Currently Browsing this Page:
1 Guest(s)
Top Posters:
clarence: 7119
TXGunNut: 5637
Chuck: 5051
steve004: 4706
1873man: 4497
Big Larry: 2454
twobit: 2358
mrcvs: 1978
TR: 1798
Forum Stats:
Groups: 1
Forums: 18
Topics: 13574
Posts: 119851

 

Member Stats:
Guest Posters: 1911
Members: 9326
Moderators: 4
Admins: 3
Navigation