This past week I wanted to lay low and not find anything. However a friend called and said check out what I just bought on Gunner Runner Auctions...he bought a Browning HP i 30 Luger..so while I was scanning through what they had to offer I stumbled on this...
This is a Springfield Model 1922 M1..22LR converted to 22 Hornet back in 1931. The Boys at the Arsenal had nothing better to do so they developed the 22 Hornet Cartridge and got Winchester to start producing the Cartridge...one problem there wasn't a gun made that would chamber the Cartridge...So the Springfield boys made up a few rifles and converted a few others out of the Model 1922s. Before long Griffin & Howe and Sedgley were doing conversions as well, as it was the newest and badest Varmit Cartridge of the day. By 1932 or so Winchester( mdl 54 & 70) and Savage (mdl 23D) were making Rifles in 22 Hornet so the demand for the conversions fell off. This is one of those rare, rare rifles. The only question I have is who did the conversion. Both Sedgley and Griffin & Howe marked the rifles that they did with their names. It is a possibility that the Springfield Arsenal did the work, but being just a single shot tends to preclude that possibility. It could be an unknown Gun Smith that did the work as well. I won't know until I get the Rifle in my hot little hands.
BTW: This rifle will be just under $1100 delivered, the Unertle scope alone is worth around $600. I would say that the rifle is worth from $1000 for an unknown Gunsmiths work to about $10,000 if the Springfield Arsenal did the conversion. Check out Brophys book on the 1903 Springfields..page 145 or the 1998 Gun Digest article on the Development of the 22 Hornet Cartridge by Mark Beneson. I wonder if anyone would care to take a guess who has some fo the hardware pictured and mentioned in these sources.
Anyway someone with the handle Ronin bid on the rifle on Gun Runner, and I wonder if its anybody we might know...at $260 there was no way he would get that rifle...he had something and let it slip away for lack of knowledge. It was only blind luck that I even saw the rifle.
