It’s a bit of an unfortunate fact that I am a bit spoiled by the really cool guns that I’ve had the opportunity to handle and shoot. I very rarely bother going to gun shops or gun shows any more, because there just isn’t very much chance of finding something new and interesting at any of them. However, the one very significant exception is the annual SAR show in Phoenix on the first weekend in December. Not only is it a place where you can meet a ton of the influential and knowledgeable people in the gun world, but interesting things always turn up. You never know what you’ll see there for sale. And if I didn’t already believe that, this year’s find for us would have cemented it permanently:
Yep, that is a partial Farquhar-Hill rifle that was for sale, until it came home with us. It’s missing the bolt, furniture, and gas system (plus a couple FCG parts, I think), but I doubt we’ll ever have another chance to get one. The receiver, trigger, and bolt cover have matching numbers, but several of the other small parts have different numbers – our working theory is that it was either an unfinished factory gun or a set of parts put aside by one of the employees building the guns originally. We will be fabricating the missing parts, and it will live again!
I did pick up some other neat things over the course of the weekend – some Maxim parts, a decent Broomhandle Mauser, a Remington Model 8 that eluded my interest until I finally realized just how cool they are – although they all pretty well pale in comparison to the Farquhar-Hill score. And, of course, we got to meet and chat with some pretty cool people, including Teri Bryant (who runs Nambu World), Dolf Goldsmith (world-renowned machine gun expert), a bunch of folks form the Remington Collectors’ Association, and many more. We also met a bunch of folks who read and enjoy the site from as far away as Belgium and New Zealand as well as right here in the US. If you’re reading this, thank you for all the kind comments – we love sharing our passion for this stuff and it means a lot to know that so many people enjoy it as well.
I’m one of those guys from Belgium 😉 I came across a discussion recently and I can’t quite figure out what to think of it. Internal of external extractors on semi-automatic guns: which is better/best ?
External, in general.
Internal essentially restricts the movement of the extractor for no good reason.
Thanks Nathaniel !
Bought a nice Remington model 8 in .35 Remington from a dealer in the next county over about 3 years ago. I find the guns history kind of fascinating. Bought a box of hunting ammo, took it out to the range, put 1 magazine through it and promptly sold it. It was hands down one of the MOST UNCOMFORTABLE firearms I’ve ever fired!! Up there with an old H&R topper with 3″ magnum slugs, .458 Win Mag out of a light bolt gun, or Hot MG ammo out of my wife’s SVD!!! Just a bruiser to to fire….
Yeah, the Remington collector folks I bought it from warned me about the recoil. I plan to put on a recoil pad, and even if it’s too unpleasant to shoot much I’ll be keeping it for the mechanical cool factor.
Can we call that a great Farquharing success?
As far as the more examiners, I’m of two minds. Everyone would like to see Form 4s go faster, but now we’ve created 9 more obstacles to reforming the NFA. Fully second your and NFATCA’s comments on suppressors, but there’s really no good reason that SBRs should be on the registry, either, or that DDs should be double taxed (on weapon and on ammo) which prevents a healthy market and shooting environment for vintage large caliber guns and rockets. And many of the AOW determinatons are … screwy… which is what happens when you have lawyers dictating engineering.
Of course, repealing the Hughes Amendment could give them useful work, and prevent the further destruction of the world’s arms heritage. The danger in opening any of these doors is clear. The Hughes Amendment itself advanced when one of the most corrupt men to ever serve in Congress (yeah, a prince among thieves indeed) temporarily sat in the chair and recorded a voice vote backwards.
Now, BATFE could have gotten those 9 NFA Examiners at any time by thinning the herd at the Chief Counsel’s Office and the street agents and field inspectors … well, ask them how they’d take a reduction in legal, uh, “support”.
Of course, ATF gets blamed for everything, but they have a real dog’s breakfast of laws to enforce. They take a lot of unfair criticism because of crap sandwiches fed to them — and us — by Congress.