Early in my accumulating career I was fortunate enough to come across 2 rare #1s. There however is a backstory to add context. I grew up on a farm in SW MI and when a teen, picked up an early std auto to shoot woodchucks and whatever I could find. Forward almost 30 years and I was forced to sell it when going thru a divorce. What got me into Ruger’s was the desire to replace that std auto and the hunt was on. To make ends meet after going broke in the settlement, I landed a part time side job in the BassPro Harrisburg fine gun room as a grunt cleaning the glass and oiling down the wares. So now to the #1s. I got a reputation as being the Ruger guy so when an estate came in with some Ruger’s, I got first look. One day a lady walked in and had her recently deceased dad’s guns wanting to get rid of them. After unpacking the expensive stuff, out comes 2 Ruger rifles. Now BassPro likes to make money so they can pay grunts like me. The head guy paid 70% of the 70% Bluebook valuation. So for $800 he let me buy both at cost and pay off as I could.
The first was a 7x57 1S (didn’t know how rare it was) and a D130-1xxxx 1B 270 or 30.06 (wish I could remember, but think it might have be the only know D prefixed gun?). I then went to my first Ruger show which at that time was in TN and tripled my money on those 2 guns, which funded more Ruger’s, but wish I had kept them
. Such is life.
. Such is life.
:others. Nice of you to remember my serial numbers. Brass Frame/Lee