Well, another month, another Saturday in that month and another Hessney.com firearms auction or as they now call them another Sportsman Auction this one was actually a Military & Sportsman Auction. Yes, of course, as is not always but usually is the case, I bought some guns.
Today's latest acquisitions (not in hand yet but I had the high bids and eagerly await delivery) are the following:
A Colt Model 1903 Hammerless in .32 Auto; this was made in 1907 as per the Colt website's serial number lookup feature. It will become the oldest firearm that I currently own. As per the folks at the auction house, of whom I inquire about almost all the firearms I bid on through them, this one is in 90% condition and is functioning properly.
I have a bit of a liking for 32 Autos, this will be the third in my current collection; although, I have had others before these. The other two currently are a Beretta Tomcat and an Ortgies pistol. I should point out that the Colt 1903 Hammerless was used by one of my favorite actors in at least a few to several films and I was willing to bid quite a bit more on this one because of that but got it at lower bid than I expected and that was a nice plus or should I say a nice minus. Back to the actor, that would be Humphrey Bogart who was in some of the best films noir ever. he surprisingly only was awarded an Oscar for two of his films and was nominated for another. He received one for Casablanca an excellent film noir but not his best which I think was The Maltese Falcon (he was robbed not getting and Oscar for that) and one for what was a comedic adventure film - The African Queen - one of his best movies and showed his wonderful adaptiveness to be able to play in a comedy). He was also nominated for his role in The Caine Mutiny another excellent film and wonderful bit pf character acting. He used this model Colt in Casablanca, The Big Sleep, Key Largo, and The Desperate Hours (more at the source). Many other actors and some actresses (what they were called back then and what I prefer) such a Lizabeth Scott, who used one in Dead Reckoning, used this same pistol in similar films noir back then in the 30s & 40s. In fact Colt 1903 Hammerless pistols have been used in films from 1918 all the way up to the current (as I write this) year 2024 (more at the source). They have also been used in television from at least 1961 through 2024, in video games and Anime (go figure).
I had the high bid on one other pistol from today's auction, I stopped bidding on the guns after that as I need to ease off a bit on how much I spend at auctions being they are usually monthly from this auction house and they have been putting a wider and wider hole in my pocket book out of which my gelt keeps flowing. That second high bid was for a Beretta U22 NEOS with a 7.5" barrel. It seems that the 7.5" barrel models are somewhat less frequently seen than are those with 6" & 4.5" barrels. I base that on me doing some checking to see if I could nail down the prices that they sold for on GunBroker.com but the 7.5" model did not show up as being sold even once through GunBroker over the course of the last year; although, those with shorter barrels were sold frequently. The one I had the high bid on today has a nice looking set of blue grips.
Me buying another Beretta should not come as a surprise to anyone who knows anything about my pistols; I have several of them going on many. I think this one will make it an even dozen. Before doing some research, I had not realized that the NEOS were discontinued by Beretta several years or so back and are now considered legacy Berettas (more at the source). Of course, at least a few of my other Berettas would also be considered legacy models such as the 950BS, 92Sb, 87 Target, 70S in 22 LR and 70S in .380 Auto. As for this one, I checked the Beretta serial number lookup feature (had not known they had this feature until writing this post when I read about it in a forum post from this past June). Well, I found out it is a deluxe model NEOS and that it was manufactured on June 02, 2004. So it is 20 years and most of 4 months old. It does not look to have been used much and the auction info indicated it is "as new". I think this one could become a very fun gun for plinking and maybe for getting the main ingredients for a Brunswick stew and by the main ingredients I mean the traditional ones in the USA - bushy tailed rats (aka: Gray Squirrels) and or rabbits although I'd prefer squirrel for the Brunswick Stew and rabbit for Hasenpfeffer.
I have only had squirrel, I think, twice and never in a stew as best I recall; it was yummy. Rabbit in stew and otherwise as in fried, I have eaten several, if not many, times. Squirrels are easy to clean but not always so easy to find & hunt; I will have to try my luck with them this season (with this pistol) if I can find a stand of productive mast trees (in which case I may not only find lots of squirrels but turkeys, hogs and deer among other critters of the forest. Honestly, when it comes to the squirrels, I figure four would make enough stew for me and my pooch for two or maybe three meals and yes she will get some - at least the meat anyway.
All the best,
Glenn B
