#3 Surprise

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oldguy

Bearcat
Joined
Jan 23, 2013
Messages
36
Location
Lost in Texas
Walked the local gun show Sunday, haven't been to one in ages. Much to my surprise eyeballed two #3's , 22 Hornet and 223. Marked as new, unfired. Don't doubt that by the look of them. Both priced in the $1700 range. Boy they sure were pretty!
 

oldguy

Bearcat
Joined
Jan 23, 2013
Messages
36
Location
Lost in Texas
Kind of what I thought. If my memory is right the hornet was marked $1645 the 223 was $1750. They didn't have a mark on them and dealer said he had the boxes. I thought darn nice but to rich for me :shock: .
 

G2

Hunter
Joined
May 8, 2006
Messages
2,491
Location
UT/AZ
That does seem on the higher side, but with the way things are going it's right in line in the not too distant future.
Now when you buy items on Gun Broker there is Sales Tax and GB fees added. I recently bought a $600 gun and by the time the deal was all said and done it was $751.

One used to find #3's for under $1,000 now it seems that's the new low. For anything in decent condition.

The Wood, Blue Steel guns are turning into days gone by.
Buy anything that is close and it's 2k plus, yes I agree it's a hand built custom but there is no mass producer firearms manufacturer that is doing anything close to what Ruger did, and it seems that the #1 is on life support @ ~$1,600 +.

#3's in the box in pristine/ new condition, unique in today's environment.
 

oldguy

Bearcat
Joined
Jan 23, 2013
Messages
36
Location
Lost in Texas
Another interesting observation was almost no "hunting rifles" to be seen on the tables of dealers including synthetic stocked stuff. Just a handful of used "blue and walnut" on tables of small vendors. Best guess revolvers amounted to about 1% of total guns with the big dealers. The largest number of revolvers was a dealer/collector that had some really nice vintage S&W on display. It's all about "tacky cool " now I guess ? Boy it made me feel old !
 

buckeyeshooter

Blackhawk
Joined
Nov 8, 2004
Messages
857
Location
Ohio
I sold a #3 in excellent shape about 5 years ago. Bought it for $400 (10+ years ago) and sold it for $800. Sounds like I sold too early. I promised myself I would get another 22 hornet, but haven't got around to it yet.
 

eastbank

Single-Sixer
Joined
Jul 3, 2017
Messages
101
i sold a .22 hornet #3 nib for 900.00 last year. as i paid less than 300.00 when i bought it, i was happy.
 
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