Hunting for collectible firearms is a lot like scouting for trophy bucks.
You have to work at it.
Magazines frequently run articles in which a writer shares experiences of finding once-in-a-lifetime deals on collectible firearms that are gathering dust in the used rack of some obscure gun shop. We’re tempted to dismiss these articles as “word processor fantasies,” but it happens more often than you might believe.
In December 2012, for example, after a duck hunt near Stuttgart, I stopped at a major sporting goods store in that fine town. I was browsing in the gun department when I spied a new Marlin 336C on the rack. It was chambered in 35 Remington. I had been looking for one for a good while, so I asked the salesman if I could handle it.
It was a new specimen, made after Remington bought Marlin, but the barrel inscription was from North Haven, Conn. That was odd because production of Marlins leverguns was moved out of New Haven after the merger. New Marlin leverguns are made in Kentucky and New York.
The wood was beautiful, with lots of burl and character. I inspected it closely, but my eyes slammed on the brakes when they hit the serial number. It was 9, preceded by four zeros. Rarely will anyone ever see a single-digit specimen of a long-lived popular hunting rifle, but I held one in my hands and it was priced right.
“I’ll take it,” I said, handing it back to the salesman.
He put it back in the rack and headed for the storage room.
“Whoa, whoa! Where are you going?” I asked.
“I’m going to get you one in the box,” he said, startled by my brusqueness.
“Unless you’ve got No. 8 back there, I want that gun right there,” I said.
That’s when he looked at the serial number.
“Well, I’ll be …,” he said, whistling softly.
It came with the original box, too, with matching numbers.
In 2003, I took a co-worker, Dickson Stauffer, to a hole in the wall called Bob’s Guns in Apache Flats, Mo., just outside Jefferson City. Dick wanted to buy a new Miroku Browning Auto-5 Light 20 that was for sale there.
In addition to that gun, there were two other Auto-5s. Both were new Magnum 12s with 30-inch barrels and Invector Plus tubes. They were priced right, as well, and I bought one.
This gun was a contradiction. It did not have the usual markings that identify the Auto-5. For example, there is always an inscription on the left side of the barrel near the receiver that says “Made in Japan” or “Made in Belgium.” The only inscription in that space said “Sport Active.”
It also had Belgian proof marks on the receiver. That really puzzled me because this was obviously a new gun. 1976 was the last year the Auto-5 was made in Belgium. Those guns had fixed bores. A system of stars and dashes engraved in the barrel denoted the choke constriction. This one had the silver sticker near the muzzle denoting Invector Plus tubes, which meant the tubes weren’t retrofitted.
Finally, it had two decks of serial numbers.
I owned it for several years before my curiosity finally got the best of me.I called the historian at Browning and described the firearm.
“That’s not one of our guns. It’s not authentic,” he said.
“What do you mean it’s not authentic?” I asked, incredulous. “I bought it from an authorized dealer.”
“I don’t care where you got it,” he said. “We didn’t make it.”
After I pitched a fit, he finally told me to give him the serial numbers and he would look into it.
He called back about 90 minutes later.
“The thing I love most about this job is that I learn something new almost every day,” he said, laughing. “The gun you have was part of a special order of 500 guns in 1999 by Zanders Sporting Goods in Sparta, Ill.
“The Auto-5 was no longer in regular production by then, so we put those guns together out of whatever parts we had. We got the barrels from an independent source, but it is factory correct. So, not only do you really have an authentic Browning Auto-5, it’s also one of the rarest of the rare. Congratulations on a unique piece.”
That’s almost as good as the Auto-5 Light 12 I got in 2001 from Gene Sears’ shop in El Reno, Okla.
In 1999-2000, I leased some hunting land in Union City, Okla, about 20 minutes south of El Reno. I stopped in at Gene’s before an afternoon turkey hunt in 2000 and saw a stunning Grade III Auto-5 in on old-style Browning box.
The gun was shorter and lighter than a standard A-5 because the magazine held only three shells instead of five. The receiver and the trigger guard were hand engraved, and the top of the receiver wore additional hand engraved patterns that do not appear on the field grade models.
The 26-inch barrel had an improved cylinder bore. The hump was adorned with a solid gold “FN,” which stands for Fabrique Nationale, the factory in Belgium where the Auto-5 was made for 70 years. The serial number denoted that the gun was made in 1940. It was one of the last before the Nazis overran Belgium and took over the factory.
This gun had never even been assembled. It was priced way out of my universe, so I admired it and went hunting. I never forgot it, though.
Nearly two years later, after I’d moved to Missouri, I finally sold my house in Oklahoma City. After the closing, I drove to Gene Sears. Not surprising, the Grade III was gone.
As I moped, Mr. Sears asked if he could help me.
“Some time back, you had this old Grade III Auto-5, but I imagine that’s long gone,” I said.
“Oh, no,” he said. “I can’t get anyone interested in it.”
It was sitting in a display case, still in the box, covered with jackets and shirts.
We settled into a serious negotiating session and finally agreed on a price that was about a third of its value in Fjestad’s Blue Book. I might have gotten it for even less if I’d been wearing sunglasses, but my eyes gave me away. Sears knew when he had me.
There have been others. It’s just like hunting for mature bucks. First, you have to look for those kinds of trophies. You have to know them when you see them, and you have to take your opportunities when they appear.
And sometimes, you just get lucky.
Sports, Pages 32 on 04/06/2014