in the mid 1980's gregg county tx hired a purchasing agent by the name of mike bedwell. he had previously served in that capacity in parker county tx (weatherford) and was a very personable gun trader.
my friend who was serving as district attorney introduced us, and we saw each other regularly for years. he related to me the story of finding m70 #1 in a pawn shop in weatherford. it was in very well used condition; he said had obviously spent many a mile in a pick-up gun rack and had little or no finish remaining and heavy wear on the stock. he bought it for little money and had simply viewed it as a shooter pre-war m70. when he got it home and examined it more closely he noticed the serial number and realized he had found the holy grail.
he had promptly sold the gun (and he never told me the sale price - but said it was "profitable"....). but he did retain good photographs and submitted an article to the american rifleman, which was printed sometime in the late 80's. i had him sign my copy of the magazine, but have lost track of where it is now.
where #2 came from i know not; but putting those two guns together was quite a hat trick...but maybe not $1.75m worth...
