Labor Day Ramble

I haven’t posted much lately, letting Derrick do most of the heavy lifting on the blog. Part of that is because of the demands placed upon me by business and the (free to drive me crazy for the summer),kids, and part because I haven’t acquired any airguns lately that have inspired me to dive in. When I say lately I mean in the last month of course.

I could write about airguns I’ve already written about, and I am working on putting together another Crosman 101 out of two parts guns at the moment, but the work isn’t as inspiring to me as tearing into unfamiliar territory as was the case with some of the airguns I have covered this year, like the Crosman 600, Crosman SA6, HW80 and the BSA Meteor.

Looking over my records (you do keep detailed records of your collection, don’t you?) I find that last year there was a two month period between June and September where I didn’t find any airguns to purchase. That seems to be holding true this year as well. I suspect it’s largely because there are no gun shows during the summer months, and less activity on the forum classifieds during the summer. Or I’m just unlucky. Of those airguns that I have found, some have been duplicates, such as the Crosman 600, Crosman 760, Crosman 180 and Crosman 400 I’ve bought. That does put a crimp in my blogging, although I think I did my best to do something interesting.

Anyway, I figured it would be interesting to talk about the airguns I bought during the period of August 1st, 2009 to August 1st 2010, where I bought them and ways you can possibly find more airguns for your collection.

September 2009

Daisy model 200 pistol
I bought this for  $15.00, although I mainly bought it for the holster that I sent to Derrick so he could practice his fast draw. The source was a local antique/junk store that keeps an eye out for airguns for me. I buy everything he finds so he’ll keep looking. The 200 has a problem that I have been unable to fix as yet, and I’m not inspired to work too hard at  it.

Benjamin model 137 pistol
Bought for  $60.00 at a local gun show, it had the glaring flaw of working perfectly.

Mondial MMM Roger BB  Pistol
Bought it at the same gun show from the same dealer for $15.00  Thankfully it didn’t work and I had something interesting to blog about.

Crosman Model 73 “Saddle Pal” BB rifle
Same gun show, but from a dealer who could have cared less about BB guns. Cost me all of $20.00 and I had fun tearing into it.

October 2009

Haenel model 310 and Haenel Model 311 rifles
I placed a “Want to Buy” (WTB) ad on the Yellow Airgun forum classifieds. Listed a bunch of different things and received a great offer on the pair for $156.58 including shipping. I spent quite a bit of time figuring those two out. I should probably place another WTB ad soon, shouldn’t I?

November 2009

Taiyo Juki Junior rifle
I found this on Gunbroker listed as a EIG pellet rifle. It probably would have gone for much more if listed as a Taiyo Juki, so my relentless reading of the Blue Book payed off in this case as it was only $63.10 w/ shipping

Benjamin 132 pistol & Daisy 717
We sell our jewelry down in Eugene at the Saturday Market. The market moves to the fairgrounds in November and there’s a great gun show there hosted by the Willamette Valley Arms Collectors Association. The show boasts many vintage, antique and target firearms and usually a few airguns. The Benjamin 132 pistol, as well as a Daisy 717 were underneath a dealer’s table for a pittance. Neither worked which was a bonus. The 717 went out to Derrick. $40.00 for the Benjamin and $20.00 for the Daisy!

Crosman/Hawthorne Model 140
The same show yielded the 140 for $40.00. It didn’t work and although I’d played with them before it was fun to work on another one.

December 2009

I picked up two Crosman 600 pistols in December, one in somewhat tired shape from Derrick and the other as a trade for some Taig Lathe parts with a long time customer of mine which works fine after a reseal but has a broken trigger guard. I had fun messing with both.

January 2010

HW80K
I managed my first airgun trade, sending a Crosman 140 and a Benjamin 397PA in exchange for the somewhat screwed up HW80K I covered on the blog. I’m still not sure who got the better deal…I do hate shipping long guns, lots of packing to make sure they arrive without extra damage. But I did get rid of two airguns I didn’t shoot much for another basket case.

February 2010

Crosman Model 180
Another Taig accessory trade, for a rather uniquely modified Crosman Model 180 rifle. I had fun cleaning up the stock to my liking.

BSA Meteor
This was a fortunate purchase on the Yellow Classifieds, the price was only $50.00 and while it required extensive work I was happy to lay my hands on a somewhat unique (compared to others) spring piston rifle.

March 2010

Derrick forced me to buy a perfectly functional (or so I thought, see my recent teardown!) BSF S20 pistol. It was $130 which I thought was a great price given the condition and box.

April 2010

Gecado (Diana) model 5 pistol
This is one I should have passed on. It was $53.00 and in somewhat worse shape than I thought. I still have yet to work up the enthusiasm to get it working right. But I hadn’t found anything else to buy.

May 2010

Crosman SA6
Derrick found a pair of these at a flea market and sent me one. I had a lot of fun getting it running. Crosman knew how to make enjoyable fun guns back then.

June 2010

Crosman 600
I asked “any airguns?” at a local yard sale and was rewarded with a Crosman 600 in great shape for $45.00 It never hurts to ask, does it?

I also picked up George’s Sheridan rifle from him, he wasn’t shooting it and wanted some cash for another project. He threw in a Sheridan pistol as well. I haven’t covered it yet.

July 2010

Asking the same “any airguns?” at another yard sale yielded a Crosman 760 with a rifled barrel and metal rather than plastic construction. It was $7.00 so I couldn’t say no.

So that’s it, show the list to your significant other when she complains you have too many airguns. I didn’t find anything at all this August but there’s a gun show coming up in a few weeks and I feel lucky!

Looking up at my list, it seems that gun shows and the forums yield the rarer items, but yard sales the least expensive. The local gun shops and pawn shops haven’t had anything in years around here.