[tabs]

Guns...I don't need no stinkin guns....

I have never been much on the Modern Double Action Autos like the SIG/Sauer or the Berretas etc...I prefer the venerable Colt 1911's....and even the wheel guns...by Smith and Colt

In 45's I especially like the PRE Series 70's National Matches...and the best ones of all are the PRE WAR NM's...and going along in that vein how bout the S&W Registered Magnums
and the Big Colt New Service Targets...and Shootin Masters

Another interesting varient are the Colt King Super Targets...The King Gun Sight Co...was located in Frisco before the big one.. where they customized both Colts and Smiths for better accuracy.. On the Supers they would install a vent rib with a small metal refelector just in back of the front sight to illuminate it... they could install an off set hammer called the "King Cockeyed" hammer and do action jobs....Colt OFFicers Models were popular canidates for customization...

As far as rifles go Griffin and Howe Baby is it for American rifles then there are a host of others like AO Neidner and Sedgley who built QUALITY....Then there iis the venerable English gun makers like Rigby...who used Mauser Actions....if you like European there is Manlicher Scheoneauer...with there glassy smooth butterknife bolts....

In SHotguns there is no better in America than Parker and LC Smith...some might say Fox....with their Box Locks...for home defence in my opinion there is nothing better than a Knuckle Buster Winchester 97 riot gun....loaded with Double 0 Buck...

For Target Work one really need not look any farther than Springfield Arsenal...they built beautiful International Match Rifles, NM's in both the 1903'S AND Garands and even 22 LR known as the Model 1922....Winchester later created the Model 52 Targets and even Remington came out with their Model 37's to compete...

As for European Military...nothing is better then a Mauser 98K..especially the Pre War ones with the Mauser Banners....the best Mauser Sniper ever built were the Swedish ones firing the flat trajectory 6.5 X 55 round....a really interesstin varient on the 98's was called the Service Mans Target rifle firing the popular German Target Round the 8.15 X 46 round....some of them even had unit or group markings on them...

While speking about German Military weapons you can't forget the Lugers....PO8's the Navys and Artillerys...it is now legal to own shoulder stocks with the Artilleries as they are curio and Relics....I especially like the Mauser S42 Lugers with chamber dates....then there is the Mauser Model 96 better known as Broom Handles it came in both 30 Mauser and 9MM aka Red Nine... Then theri are the Walther Products....the PP's and P38's the most desirable of the P38's is the HP...commercial production....and the SIG P210-6 has got to be the best built 9MM ever...like a rock

Now if you wana talk about antiques....one of the hot areas are Civil War and Indian War period Carbines....Smith, Sharps and Springfield Trapdoors...to mention a few....but the hotest area of US Military Collecting is anything to do with Custers Last Stand you can even buy a house in CA with the amount of money some of the stuff is bringing.....Then we come to a fascinating area...the Target Rifles of the 19th Century..where the English, Irish, Australian and American Teams competeted with each other in 1000 yard matches...The Anglo teams prefered Muzzleloading Rifles by Gibbs, Whitworth and others built by Gunmakers throughout the British Isles..some of those Co's like Dickson are still in Business today..while the US Teams Used Single Shot Breech Loaders most notably Sharps Rifles....as a matter of fact the Sharps Model 1878 Long Range was used until the turn of the century competivily, another popular American Breech loader was the Winchester Model 1885 Highwalls and Lowwalls...some of those rifles really had super delux features..... however it is not well known that the Muzzleloaders were as accurate at longrange shooting as the Modern Bench Rest Rifles...it seemed that there were 100's if not 1000's of American gunmakers producing quality rifles...a couple being Wm Lawerence of MA and JH Rector..of NY....

Then one can even go back a step further in history and start Talking about Pennslyvania Long Rifles but I'll save that for another day...