steve004 said
Burt – that’s a fine picture.  I enlarged it and could see the rifle very well.  Amazing top condition.  What a prize!  James won’t be the only one missing some sleep tonight.  

Steve/James – thank you for the nice compliments on the 92. As I noted at the start of this thread, the 25-20 was a compromise but I have never regretted the purchase. As you can tell from the letter I have had it over 30 years so there has been plenty of time for buyer’s remorse if it was going to happen. Everyone has to figure out what is important to them and not necessarily go after what others may prefer – its your money. I like condition but I am adamant about guns being original and correct. Sometimes you have to go off course just a bit, especially if you are looking for the right gun in a particular model. I don’t believe in prematurely pulling the trigger but sometimes if you snooze, you lose. I have a friend who has looked for a 53 deluxe for 40 years and he is still looking! I too looked for a 53 deluxe for a long time and eventually compromised on a high condition standard grade in 44-40, takedown. It is the only model lever that I do not have a deluxe and that is ok because I like the one I have. I looked hard at the engraved 53 Merz has for sale and if the gun is absolutely right I think it is worth more than the asking price. However, that gun was discussed at length on this forum and it sets off my irritable bowel syndrome. It is best that I do not own it. So James, I wish you the best in your quest for the right gun.

Burt Humphrey said

Steve/James – thank you for the nice compliments on the 92. As I noted at the start of this thread, the 25-20 was a compromise but I have never regretted the purchase. As you can tell from the letter I have had it over 30 years so there has been plenty of time for buyer’s remorse if it was going to happen. Everyone has to figure out what is important to them and not necessarily go after what others may prefer – its your money. I like condition but I am adamant about guns being original and correct. Sometimes you have to go off course just a bit, especially if you are looking for the right gun in a particular model. I don’t believe in prematurely pulling the trigger but sometimes if you snooze, you lose. I have a friend who has looked for a 53 deluxe for 40 years and he is still looking! I too looked for a 53 deluxe for a long time and eventually compromised on a high condition standard grade in 44-40, takedown. It is the only model lever that I do not have a deluxe and that is ok because I like the one I have. I looked hard at the engraved 53 Merz has for sale and if the gun is absolutely right I think it is worth more than the asking price. However, that gun was discussed at length on this forum and it sets off my irritable bowel syndrome. It is best that I do not own it. So James, I wish you the best in your quest for the right gun.  

Burt – The engraved 53 Merz rifle. I won’t weigh in on the engraving as it is not my area of study.  However, the extra tap holes are a substantial detractor for me.  The loss of the black Japanned finish on the barrel, while common, is on the unsightly side.  Given the write-up in the Winchester Collector magazine, the rifle has surely been looked at by many collectors.  Surely, many knowledgeable collectors have an opinion on the rifle.  A final note – the photo that shows the very end of the lower tang in the curve of the grip (two screws showing) – there is a line there that I don’t understand.  It looks like a crack or scratch but it’s hard to tell.

Over the last week, while discussing the possible purchase of one of my Winchester’s with a fellow WACA member, I was reminded of the dilemma many, if not all of us has at some time faced when trying to buy a gun. Do you want to take advantage of the opportunity to buy a rare, high condition gun or do you let it go because you think it is priced at the high end of its value and just don’t want to spend the money. Previously in this thread, I mentioned a conversation I had with Tommy Rholes over 30 years ago wherein he said “if you are collecting strictly for appreciation, buy brass and case hardened guns”. He also told me once that even if you have money, you will find deluxe models of the 53,55 and 92 (especially in 44) very elusive. This is probably more true today than it was at that time. I chased the deluxe 53 for 40 years and never found one that was high condition and not messed with. I know other collectors with both money and connections that have also never been able to acquire one. It is the only model for which I have not owned a deluxe variation. As I have aged and scaled back, I have sold the vast majority of my Winchesters and intend to keep only one of each model made in the 19th century. As they go I am always sad but I understand we are all only temporary caretakers and I feel we have an obligation to take the best care we can of them and pass them on to collectors who will do the same. I have been in awe of the Winchester lever action since I was a boy. I bought my first one, to the dismay of my dad, when I was 15 years old. The summer I turned 17, a friend and I worked on a construction crew building fence in South Dakota. We worked 10 hours a day, six days a week in the blistering hot sun – it was one of those make you want to go to college kind of jobs. When the summer was over we had each saved about $2500. My friend bought a brand new Ford Mustang – beautiful coup, black on black, 289 with a 4 speed. I spent my money on a deluxe 86, full octagon, full magazine, case hardened, rifle butt in 45-70. I had the gun for 20 years before I ever got a letter on it – didn’t need it as I knew it was right. My dad thought I had lost my fricking mind when I bought that gun. Twenty five years later when I sold the 86 for a ton of money, that Mustang was long ago worn out, rusted out and parted out. My only regret, by then my dad had passed away. In the winter of 1976, my wife and I, newly married, threw everything we owned in the back of a pick-up and drove to Alaska (Henry, if you are reading this, things used to be different at the Canadian border). Included in the possessions in the back of the pick-up were 10 lever action Winchesters, including the 86. We both had jobs and we scrimped and saved for a long time to get enough money to make a good down payment on a house – I have never told my wife that the old Winchesters were worth enough to just buy the house but at that point in my life I would only part with a gun to get a better one. When I have sold Winchesters to younger WACA members, they always have a lot questions about WHAT TO BUY. Here are a few things that I have learned which I think will serve most well:

1. Collect what interests you and have a direction – try to become as much of an expert as you can in what you are collecting. I was lucky to have friends to help me and this Forum is a valuable asset – sure wish it was around years ago when I started collecting. So many guys on this Forum are willing to share their extraordinary knowledge.

2. Buy the best you can afford. If you have $10k to spend, buy the best gun you can for $10k rather than buying a couple of $5k guns. Every gun I ever bought that turned out to be a good investment was one where my hands were sweating as I wrote the check.

3. Don’t buy altered or restored guns – for the most part they will always be a dead end. The most important thing for a collectible Winchester is originality – the gun needs to be right. There is enough discussion here on the Forum about fakery that I think everyone understands how important it is for a gun to be original and correct.

It is a cold and snowy night here in Eagle River, Alaska and as I was going thru some old Forum posts and sipping on some good Canadian whiskey, I came across this post and wondered if James had jumped on that last purchase he was contemplating – it has been over a year since he started the post on “what to buy”. I don’t recall seeing posts from him lately – hope he is well. I am getting too old for these winters – leaving Sunday for 3 weeks in Mexico – will park the snow plow and put some miles on a golf cart.

clarence said

On your return, don’t forget to bring your two (legal) quarts of Herradura Suprema, which you can buy there for half the

clarence said

On your return, don’t forget to bring your two (legal) quarts of Herradura Suprema, which you can buy there for half the US price.  (May spoil your taste for Canadian whiskey!)   

US price.  (May spoil your taste for Canadian whiskey!)   

Clarence – I gave up tequilla almost 50 years ago – made me do stupid things. Even at half-price, anything with a Herradura label is too sophisticated for me.

clarence said

Burt Humphrey said

 Clarence – I gave up tequilla almost 50 years ago – made me do stupid things. Even at half-price, anything with a Herradura label is too sophisticated for me.

  Burt,  If that Yaller Boy (or is it the Russel?) is an example of your “stupid things,” I need to start buying by the case.  (Though I’ll have to sell some guns to afford it.)  

That Yaller Boy was a Xmas gift from my wife about 30 years ago – at some point I posted in the Forum about my wife contacting Tommy Rholes for a nice Christmas gift for this lucky boy. I have been lucky to have known some of the early collectors and be around and own some nice and rare levers (6th gun from the bottom is a iron frame Henry – not all have been fortunate enough to handle or own one of them). I recently sold one of my most prized Winchesters – not the most valuable but a high condition and hard to find Model 55, deluxe variation and serial #5. I am elated it went to a young WACA member who will now be the new temporary custodian as I took care of it for over 30 years. I probably missed some nice car or cute girl times when I was young because I put time and money into my passion for the lever action Winchester.