Early small ring Broomhandle with matching original shoulder stock

[boltaction]

I've been offered an early production small ring Broomhandle (pre-NS) with matching shoulder stock, in very clean condition. Asking price is $2000. I think that seems reasonable. Any thoughts on that? I'll post pictures later if I have a chance.

Thanks.

Ed

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[Patrick Chadwick]

I'm thinking that seems reasonable.

I know a collector who is selling up and has several of these pistols, and wants more than you quote. But they really are immaculate.

So yes, that seems reasonable to me over here. A bargain in fact - PROVIDED that it really is 100% matching and REALLY is in good condition. As you will be in effect paying a good proportion of the price for precisely these two features, do not be shy of taking some time and go over it VERY carefully with a watchmaker's eyeglass. I do not know what is meant by "very clean condition" and like all such "analog" evaluations, it can be very subjective. As a shooter, my idea of clean condition could be what a collector might call 3rd grade. But "matching" is a simple binary yes/no evaluation. Either all marked components match, or not. "Nearly matching" does not count. And any refinishing is a value killer for collectors.

An "old banger" C96 could be acquired for roughly half of the price you quote. So check out the condtion and numbering and find out which parts should be numbered before making your judgement. In fact, get as much information about this model as you can before handing over serious money.

Oh, one last tip. At this price level, a good seller will let you take plenty of time to examine a piece, and wil be prepared to dismantle the pistol in front of you so that you can make an internal check. (He may reasonably prefer to do it himself rather than permitting you to dismantle the pistol). But if the seller shows impatience and tries to rush you into a decision, that is a major alarm signal.


Patrick

[boltaction]

Thanks! The parts are all matching, and original with no renumbering. The shoulder stock metal likewise matches the pistol. However, there is some surface rust on the metal fittings of the shoulder stock, and the pistol itself is not mint/immaculate--there are small spots of surface rust here and there, minor blemishes, but there nonetheless. The bore is very clean.

Ed

[backslash]

Just make sure the barrel is the actual barrel and not a liner. About ten years ago I bought a 5 gallon plastic barrel full of rusting Astra broomhandle parts. There were the components/receivers for 8 pistols. I paid $500 dollars. First thing I did was rust/pitting removal. I discovered that whatever was pitted outside was twice as pitted inside,esp the barrel. So, after I turned and skinned off the pitted metal on my lathe I drilled out the barrel and turned the 7.63 Mauser barrel out and lined the barrel with a 9mm liner and spun a proper 9mm chamber and epoxied the unit inside the barrel. I did a good job so when the whole lot was blued you couldn't tell there was a lier after the bbl was crowned. The lower receiver was a real bear to tackle but eventually my grinder half past dead I was careful to leave all markings and i used a rock tumbler and media and tumbled the interior parts until they looked like silver. I miked them and they were acceptable. I reloaded sabout 100 weak 9mm FMJ rounds and other than some ftf's I installed some Wolf spring sets and set about replacing all springs. I ran the weak 9mm rounds through the pistols and bought replacement red 9 grips and put them all together. They were then polished to a high gloss and blued a deep blue. I had quite a few spare parts that I refinished and let them loose on auctions and gun shows. Coupled with a professional photographer the pistols slowly were let into the market. They sold from a low of $1300 to a high of $2200. One gentleman bought 3 of them. The most remarkable thing that occured was a catastrophic failure when a bolt tab broke off one pistol and luckily no injury occurred. After that incident I had all remaining bolts heat treated and sent every buyer a ht bolt with instructions on how to switch them out and return the original bolts that I had heat treated and sold. I guess the moral of the incident is to be fair to your customers and never judge a book by its cover. Ironic but true but I sold the expensive book I originally bought for $125 on the Astra Broomhandles to the gentleman who bought the three pistols for $200.