doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Did anyone here get these Hart '03s?

I take it you've been looking for than one for a while?

More aware than looking, the benefit of a good library.

We will all be waiting to see the details.....and prognosis.
Art

As I said "Time will tell", What I think I know and what it ends up to be are not always the same.

Each rifle is a new learning experience that sends me in many different directions. A new rifle, a new adventure.

I don't like proxibid either, but in a discussion with my brother he pointed something out which is true. Many states (i.e. Wisconsin) apply sales tax to the auction prices. This makes the proxibid total price (less shipping) comparable to the price paid by a state resident attending the auction. And for a state resident bidding via proxibid, he/she would pay the auction premium, the proxid 5% and then the state sales tax. This is something to consider for bidding strategies.

Michael brought the Hart rifles to my attention a while back and asked if I would go over and look at them for him. I've got a few hart rifles and I also have a thing for old varmint rifles, so he figured (correctly) that I'd be interested in the Hornet. The auction was a strange deal. Much like SDH said, imagine your local Wednesday evening auction going hi-tech. The bidding was started at the hi online bid and went from there. For the most part I thought stuff went very reasonable. The little Sako .222 surprised me, as did the Weatherby .224 varminter. The Winchesters I thought went rather reasonable, but I don't really keep up on Winchester prices other than to know that if it says Winchester on it, it is going to be high. The model 12 trap was brand spanking new and had the tag and box, I thought it would go higher than it did.

I was able to get the Carved rifle for Michael, and I ended up with the Hornet. They both have a few little issues that need addressed, but nothing that can not be taken care of. The stocks are both in great shape. One interesting thing is that both have a bunch of cast-off. The Hornet has about a half inch or more near as I can tell. The Hornet is an earlier Rodgers stock before he developed some of his later refinements. His early stocks look just like a Hoffman stock probably due to his time working for Hoffman. Later he began to develop his own style, and add the small detail touches that I really like in his work. His comb nose treatment changed, his cheek piece developed its little down turn in the front that ran into the checkering, and he began adding more detailing around the top of the stock where it meets metal. Michael s carved stock has many of these features.

I'll try to get some pictures of the hornet in the next few weeks.

John

Congrats to you both for scoring a couple of unusual treats! I'll be looking forward to pix of each.
John, I'm curious if you think the on-line bidding was treaterd the same as on-site and/or if it confused the process?
Steve

Okay Class, please open your text book to page page 143 and take special note of the gun rack.

For those who came to class unprepared please see me after class, with $30.

Steve,
I was a little worried before it started. Due to having to wait for online bids, the auction went VERY slow. He did not spend a lot of time talking up each item and trying to get the most $ for it, but he did give a very slow three count before dropping the hammer to give the internet bids time to get in. I could see that if you had a slow connection it could cause problems. There were only about 40 people in attendance, and only 4 or 5 doing the bidding. Probably about half the guns sold to online bidders.

Overall I got a very creepy feeling about the whole deal and was glad to get my rifles and get the heck out of there.

On the plus side, the NcNeal guy who owned most of the collection was a real shooter and gun nut, so although the guns were sometimes well used and modified for his purpose, they were well taken care of and most of the bores that I looked at were in very good condition. My understanding is that the guns were in storage for the last 6 years and before being put in storage many of them were greased up and wrapped in plastic.

John