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Winchester Mdl 1894 SRC Cal 30/30 SN:429991 Belonging to famous western artist Charlie Russell with accompanying letter from Loraine Gunkel dated 1978. In the letter it states that this rifle was gifted to her, as the owner of Ramona Valley Arts, CoBelonging to famous western artist Charlie Russell with accompanying letter from Loraine Gunkel dated 1978. In the letter it states that this rifle was gifted to her, as the owner of Ramona Valley Arts, Colorado Springs from theBrityman Estate and owners of the Brityman Ranch in Montana. The Brityman's were printers for Charles Russell. The rifle is "bunkhouse" engraved on the right side receiver with Russell's signature "trail skull". The left side isinscribed "You need not fear any man that walks beneath the sky through he be strong and you weak, this will right all". Signed C.M. Russell. Russell, an avid hunter, wrote several letters about his "94" Winchester. Includes saddlescabbard.
I have often thought that with rifles. A rifle that was captured at Gallipoli from the Australians or British was engraved and presented to Lawrence of Arabia by the saudi's. It was in Australia at the War Memorial last year on loan from the UK.
As a fan of both Lawrence, and a person who lost a great uncle at Gallipoli I would dearly have liked to listen to that rifle.
Having said that as a history nut there are many rifles and swords that I would like a similar 'chat' with. The same goes for warplanes- buildings and bridges (such as Pegasus Bridge) and even trees and rivers.
For me that is one of the biggest attractions of old guns. Just to hold them and wonder. I have many I've never fired but still get much enjoyment from. I've often wished they weren't worth so much so I could afford more of them!
"Oh bother", said Pooh, as he chambered another round.
A few years back, I purchased a relic condition (battlefield recovered) 1850 Austrian Cavalry Sabre. This sabre was found on the Antietam Battlefield in 1880. It was kept for many years in a small local "museum" in Virginia. The museum went bankrupt and the items it held were put up at auction and I purchased this sabre from one of the auction buyers. It is complete with scabbard. The grip has long since disappeared. The scabbard is complete and in relatively rusty good shape. There are three ball dents on the scabbard. A .44 caliber ball fits each dent perfectly. The sabre itself is still full-length. The blade is battered and clearly has been in a hell of a fight. I took a magnifying glass and examined the edge carefully. While very chewed up, there were dents caused by at least 4 other weapons that could be clearly determined, as these weapons repeated their strikes many times on the blade. The metal cup that protected the hand had 2 more ball dents in it. Apparently the sabre was not totally buried but was found on the surface of the ground. There was still some dirt remaining that I shook out of the scabbard. This model Austrian sabre was one of many items purchased by the South from Austria when the South still had gold to make purchases. This sabre was still the issue weapon and highly desireable in the Austrian Army at the time the South acquired it. I'm not one to be superstitious or believe a lot in ghostly beings, but I will tell you that when I hung this up in my living room with some other Civil War items, I was quite conscious of it being in the room with me. Something with a very strong presence made that room "feel" differant. I thought that perhaps the sword should be returned to the battlefield and did contact the Superintendant of the battlefield and asked about adding it to their relic collection. They asked me to hold off on this as they were in the process of building some kind of accomodation that would house their collection. I still feel it should be returned there and probably would if I knew how to actually go about it. Any ideas? It still resides on my living room wall.
GregT
"Underneath our starry flag, civilize 'em with a Krag"
GregT,
personally i think you should keep it. you respect its associations, and understand more about it than anyone else will, having examined it so closely. as long as you continue to respect and hold it dear to yourself, as you obviously do, i think its better you keep it, than assigning it to the anonymous gaping of strangers at a historical site. Just my opinion, but it is based on a similar but much more severely eerie experience, involving a real human spine, that i still use, as always respectfully, in explaining procedures to patients. Keep it, display it with respect, and you are both better off for it.
me neither, but i had a house guest who was petrified! she went out and bought crucifixes for everyone to wear--she even bought one for each of the sheltie dogs!
