Arms Collectors Shoot I recently heard from friend Bill Adams regarding his work with the Massachusetts Antique Arms Collectors’ annual outing. Bill has organized a “historic arms shooting program” in conjunction with the event, which is held every summer. As Bill noted, some collectors are “hor ror-stricken” at the thought of actually shooting genuine antique arms, anticipating perhap loss of value, which is really a problem with a gun in average condition. The photos of the program, which are included in this colu courtesy of Bill, show the vari of arms made available for shoo ing, as well as a collector pul a trigger. Some of those presen were pulling a trigger on a gun loaded with live ammunition
Massachusetts Antique Arms Coll group of firearms for the event
for the first time ever. Altho most of the guns were original antiques, ultra-rare arms like Revolutionary War Ferguson breech loading flintlock rifle the Henry repeater, for exampl were represented by “authenticized repros.” The event has b quite popular and draws more collectors to the range every This is an excellent progra and I would like to see it introduced in antique arms collector clubs across the cou You really don’t know how a gu works unless you shoot it with live ammunition. I have made i a practice, as a military hist writer, to shoot the arms used soldiers in the era I am writi about, from matchlock muskets – which had surprisingly fast ignition – to M-1 Garands, usi live ammunition, not blanks. I has helped me understand what
a soldier on the ground was doing during a given battle, and think it would help non-shooting collectors understand, even more than they do now, that they have custody of historically significa
1950s, one of the several companies importing and selling surplus military arms to the public was Service Armament Company, located in Ridgefield, New Jersey, not too far from my home in Newark. I badgered my father into taking me and a friend over to the Service Armament combination warehouse/store owned by Valmore “Val” Forgett, an army ordnance corps veteran who had worked at the Aberdeen Proving Ground Museum. Val, whose company advertised in gun magazines as “Ma Hunter” had a huge collection of arms, from ri-
the time, and, if I recall correc many of them had been captured from the Egyptians by the Israelis in the 1957 war. I came home with a Lee Enfield and my friend with a G-43. Eventually, Service Armament morphed into Navy Arms, one of the first, if not the first, companies to contract with Italian gun makers to
of historic American firearms, at the time the North-South Skirmish Association historical reenacting were growth industries due to the Civil War Centennial. Over the years Navy Arms has left its New Jersey home and relocated to Martinsburg, West Virginia. The company has recently announced that their Parker-Hale Whitworth,
used by selected Confederate sharpshooters, is on the way back to production status and the Italian made gun will be on the market shortly, with an Ame walnut stock, genuine bone charcoal case hardened hammer and lockplate and the original style hexagonal bore. A friend of mine who is an antique arms expert, as well as a shooter, advised me that he saw one of the new Navy Arms Whitworths at this year’s Baltimore Gun Show and sent me a critical appraisal. He reported that: “The fit and finish was excellent. The casehardening is quite colorful, much more brilliant than encountered on most repro arms. The gun is “pretty,” although a bit heavy and in keeping with the P-H, Euroarms and Pedersoli tradition of doing things almost right has P53 style mounts. I bet that if the Rifle Shoppe or someone Adams) else made prope
plates and trigger guards for the repro Whitworths, there would be a lot of upgrades. A proper ram-
rod would also be a plus. None of these aspects affect shooting, of course. The gun looked impres-
sive and should shoot well.” For more information on the Whit-
This is not Civil War ammunition, but I know that a lot of Ci War shooters are black powder cartridge gun buffs, so let us sa that this product would appeal to someone who is reenacting a GAR or UCV guy buying some ammo in the late 19th century.
rently working on a limited run o 32 Short Colt Brass. I believe th is the only place one can find th kind of cartridge case, so check it out quickly if you are interes ed. Prices per cartridge case are
Henry Rifles first came on the market in the summer of 1862 in Kentucky and, ironically, the fir purchasers were probably Confederate raiders. In the last thr years of the war, the fast firing Henry became a favorite arm of a number of Union soldiers, particularly in the Western Theater of the conflict, who bought the
guns with their own money. The only Henrys actually purchased by the federal government were
those requested by slightly shad but influential Colonel Lafayett Baker for his 1st District of Co lumbia Cavalry regiment. Some of these ended up in Confederate hands through capture and may have been the Henrys allegedly carried by Jefferson Davis’ body guard. Leftovers were offered to
men who enlisted as Veteran Volunteers in the last months of th war. Production of Henrys was never on the scale of the rival Spencer, and most of them were sold on the commercial market. In October 1864, you could buy a Henry, described in an advertisement as a “fifteen shot rifl that should be in every hunter’s hands,” at C. Proal’s hardware store in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
Joseph G. Bilby received his BA and MA degrees in history from Seton Hall University and served as a lieutenant in the 1s
He is Assistant Curator of the New Jersey National Guard and Militia Museum, a freelance writ er and historical consultant and author or editor of 20 books and over 400 articles on NJ and military history and firearms, and as publications editor for the N Civil War 150 Committee edited the award winning New Jersey Goes to War. He has received an award for contributions to Monmouth County (NJ) history and an Award of Merit from the NJ Historical Commission for contributions to the state’s milita history.