Post by grasshopper on Sept 21, 2021 12:53:15 GMT -7
Hello all! I sure hope everyone here on the forum is having a great day or at least the best one they can have so far! After reading Gary’s last post and then reading it a couple of more times it jogged my memory and made me think of what I would call a good deed returned or maybe good karma, you can decide and call it what you decide. A couple of years ago I went to the largest gun show of the year in Atlanta, it’s still one of the best actual gun shows without all the vinyl siding, windows, baked goods or other non gun items that seem to be at more and more shows. Anyway, I was standing in line to get inside and a senior gentleman about 80 or better was standing in front of me and had a couple of rifles slung on his shoulders and a 50 cal ammo can in each hand. That’s a good bit to carry no matter your age, I helped him open a couple of doors you had to go thru to get inside the building and struck up a conversation with him. He was carrying a quality hardware M1 carbine he got in the 60s for cheap from the DCM and on the other shoulder he had a Remington 1903A4, yet that’s right an A4 not 3 completer with the correct scope and mounts, he also had a Remington Rand 1911 in his waistband. He had gotten these thru the DCM as well in the 60s or 70s. While talking with him he asked how much I thought each one was worth because he said he had no clue and that he only had a daughter and no grandkids so no family was interested in them so he was just gonna sell them. Luckily I had a good guess of what a ballpark figure of each should be. I told him $1200 for the carbine, between $3-4K on the A4 and around $1500 for the 1911. The ammo cans had assorted military ammo with clips and magazines for each weapon. I helped him all the way into the show and we went our separate ways. After spending 3-4 hours looking at everything I decided there wasn’t anything there I couldn’t live without so I decided to leave. I was literally about to step out the exit door when I heard someone yell “Rob!” I generally don’t just turn immediately around if someone yells my name as it’s a great way to get a broken nose!🤣 I finally turned and saw it was the older guy I’d helped that morning. He came over and was super happy saying he was able to sell each of the weapons for exactly what he asked for each based on what I told him. He said “I have one rifle left and I really don’t just want to sell it to anyone, it’s my favorite rifle and belonged to my only brother” he took it off his shoulder to show me and it was an all matching and correct Springfield M1 Garrand from 1942! The rifle was in really great shape for its age but I was mostly impressed about it all matching, from the barrel date to the op rod etc! He said” you were so nice to me this morning, helping me carry that junk and telling me what you thought it might be worth.” “ I’ve looked at some of the other M1s like my Springfield and they want a lot for them, I don’t wanna just sell this one because my brother came back from Europe during WWII and managed to keep this rifle from his time in the ETO” he asked if I would like to buy the rifle, I told him I would love too but honestly just didn’t think I could afford it. He said,” well, since you were so nice to me when you didn’t have to be and went out of your way to try and help me, how does $800 sound for the rifle and two ammo cans of black tip 06 ammo in the em bloc clips and bandoliers plus the bayonet”? I told him I’d love too but it was way too cheap, he said he didn’t care and just wanted it to have a good home. So of course I bought the rifle without further argument! We walked out to his little station wagon to grab the ammo and he had forgotten the bayonet. He said I’ll just mail it to you, I gave him my address thinking he would forget or just never get around to mailing it. I was happily surprised about a week later when the bayonet and a picture of his brother with his rifle during WWII showed up at the house! I won’t ever sell that rifle, it will go to my son and he can decide what he wants to do with it,(I have a good idea) like I said at the start Gary’s stories of finding different treasures just made me think about this incident and thought I would share today. How about you guys? Anyone have a story about a good deed done coming back to them? I also believe it works the other way too! Hopefully no one here has a story like that to share though! Hopefully some of you fine folks will be inspired to share!!😁