Jump to content

21NAVY

Board Benefactor
  • Posts

    230
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    1

Posts posted by 21NAVY

  1. Apologizing for not being on the forum for awhile,  Been on a tangent restoring vintage Baja 1000 Bikes.  Was reading Tom's new book with interest on the BM Aresenal Proofed Guns.

    I did a fair amount of searching and can't find any info on a recent sale of one and was curious what everyone thought they may be worth.  Mine is #3684, The George Wallace gun in Gordons Books.  This gun is one of 9 in Toms book.  It has proofs in the correct location and are crisp and not mis-struck. I have a ton of stuff with this gun including shot mag and full box of shot and Oscar Paynes 1923 catalog, 3 digit C-Drum. 21 parts, old case.   David and Sig have looked over some of the photos and catalog years ago.  Don't need to sell it necessarily, just curious what they might be worth and if any had sold recently.  Hi to the Gang and good to see you all on here.

  2. I was having a random conversation this afternoon with a fellow in the bridge demolition industry and he out of the blue mentioned he had dredged up a Thompson in 2008 when they were repairing the derailment of the Turkey Creek Bridge a couple miles southeast of Guttenberg, IA in 2008.

     

    There was no wood left, the vertical grip screw was still there, He said it was way rusted but they took it to the service truck and wire wheeled the sides of it and the only thing notable was a circular area where the serial numbers had been ground off and could faintly read COLT'S

     

    Anybody know of any going's on in Guttenberg IA in the Gangster era? He figured someone just threw it off the bridge.

  3. Gordon's Book shows shipped 1-31-34 1 of 2. This gun is 10 serials later than mine (3684) and has the British proofs as does mine. In visiting with T.D. awhile back, These guns mostly showed up delivered to agencies on the southeastern coast states.

    Seems plausible that a group of these guns were taken to the UK for evaluation and brought back and sold on a sales trip to agencies thru the Southeast. Perhaps at a discount since they'd been used or fired/tested.

     

    Mine (3684) was shipped to Montgomery AL PD on 12-27-33 1 of 2. 3694 was shipped to Salisbury, NC (Rowan County) PD on 1-31-34 1 of 2, so the timing of the sales seems to fit that theory.

     

    I have no information proving this, just a theory.

  4. Need the folks to chime in here on what this is.

     

    Murray Willis and I were rummaging in boxes at the SAR Show in PHX in 2012, looking for Luger stuff, and Murray tossed this to me and I think I paid 100 bucks for it. Didn't think much further about it and tossed in in my box of parts

     

    It was used as in the photos. I know Doug Richardson made some excellent Repros. It has no identifying marks on it.

     

    Any ideas? My guess is it's a repro of some sort.

     

    Thanks all.

    IMG_20160124_192646184.jpg

    IMG_20160124_192032620.jpg

    IMG_20160124_192100249.jpg

    IMG_20160124_192249347.jpg

  5. In order to further muddle this, My 28 overstamp, #3684 "George Wallace" Thompson out of the Birmingham, Al P.D is Birmingham Arsenal proofed and shipped from AOC to the P.D..

    I think I recall TD finding a few of the Birmingham proofed Guns finding homes along the southeast and southern US Police Dept's. Almost sounds like a sales trip thru the Southeast by someone resulted in selling these guns.

     

     

    Perhaps someone took some guns to England for inspection/potential sale in the later twenties? I have no idea, just asking.

  6. Dave-

     

    I just missed you. Had one of the fire planes there from Aug. 12th to Sept 11th. Stayed at the 40's themed Hangar Hotel, Flew 105 hours on fires in the Hill Country. Saved some homes, and hay and outbuildings. Came back to PHX on the 12th. Went to the Museum there twice to get it all in. Ate lots of good food.

     

    The 28 Overstamp there I thoink was a J. Curtis Earl Gun from PHX that transferred to an individual in TX and was donated. It's displayed showing the left side because someone marred up the right side trying to get the internals out of the gun.

     

    My favorite place in Texas too.

    IMG_20150817_193518.jpg

    IMG_20150823_161510.jpg

  7. This is along the same line of discussion about Colt somehow using some electro-pen looking device for marking S/N 41. Under no circumstance would Colt have let #41 go out the door for sale with those markings. Furthermore, there is no other evidence of Colt ever using such a device. The "pattern gun" illustrates that Colt had in their employ, not only Electro-pen Thompson engravers apparently, but ham fisted die strikers ready to mark any specialty gun in their secret rooms with a large hammer.

     

    Hats off to T.D. and ReconBob for the call.

×
×
  • Create New...