USFA Ultra Rare guns

[GaryG]

There are many that come to mind but I'll start with 2 .  Bisley rim fire.  Only 2 rim fire frames and and hammers were made.  One set was turned into a Bisley rim fire.  The other frame and hammer are I believe owned by Doug.  The completed gun went to a member of the CCS.
The "House Pistol".  Basically a sheriff model with a 4" highly tapered barrel with House Pistol rolled on the side of the barrel. 

[yahoody]

Gary great topic!  Seems like USFA did so many one off guns that it would be hard to signal out any one of them past the obvious of rare model or engraving..

Since you were there and saw them go through the doors I'm (and others I suspect are) really interested to see what you consider rare.

Some of the USFA  factory I thought rare prior...before I started really looking and taking note at what USFA actually produced in detail.

[Capt. John Fitzgerald]

That 4", ejectorless Omni in the above photo is one of my all time favorite USFA's!  As a rule, I'm not a big fan of the Omni's but that one really speaks to me!  Wonder what it would go for on the open market today?
Also…  Whatever became of that one-of-a-kind "house pistol?"  You have mentioned it before.  I've always been a fan of the 4" ejectorless SAA's (count me as weird).  Have a couple of Colts and one USFA.  Wish I had ordered more USFA's!  My USFA is nickel plated with standard hammer.  Should have ordered another with the bird"s head hammer.  Would have made a nice set.

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[yahoody]

Mine as well Capt.. although I like the medium length one (3'?) a little more.  $?  Like about the same as this one in 45 Colt
Love to own that one!  (just found the Colt sold for $40K recently so may be not that expensive!)



or this?

[Capt. John Fitzgerald]

Thanks, Yahoody!  
4" for me!  Although many seem to prefer the 3" models, the 4" was Colt's best seller back when first introduced back in the 1880's.  
Somewhere else on this board, some time back, I posted the exact percentages of Colt Sheriff/Storekeeper models sold with barrel length being the only segregating factor.  4" was, by far, the most popular, followed by 3&1/2".  3" barrel models were a distant 3rd place.  Don't quote me on this, as I have not looked it up lately, but, as I recall (and my old mind doesn't work as well as it used to) 4" was over 80% and 3" was under 5%.  Always made me wonder why Colt, when they reintroduced the Sheriff model some years ago, went with the 3" instead of the 4".   A couple of years ago Colt made a limited number of 4" models that they roll marked "Shopkeeper."  I was lucky enough to get one of them.  One of these days I will send it off to get one-piece, oiled walnut grips made for it.
 

[yahoody]

Thankfully I am lucky enough to have the 4" covered in both brands    I looked for a long time before finding this Storekeeper and eventually sorting it out.

The original hook..from 20+ years ago.



The reality....which took me 25 years to buy and finish with carved ivory and a 1st gen style hammer.

[GaryG]

Patriot Series:  30 Carbine
The Hunter .17 HMR

[Pangaea]

I got this one from the same individual I purchased the two Nettletons from.  It is similar to those shown above, I'd love to have a snubnose like this.  Maybe one of these days.

[yahoody]

Question for Gary.  Seems so many guns came out of USFA as one off sample guns.

Are what you have listed a single or 2 guns of a particular series like the rim fire Bisley's you mention?

Guns like the non .45 Inspector Series come to mind.  Guns that seemingly shouldn't exist within the Series.

Factory engraved guns have to be rare...any numbers on those?

[GaryG]

There is/was a dealer in OR maybe WA that would order inspector series guns in various Calibers.  This was probably in 2003 or 2004.  USFA at that time would take the order.  As I remember, Doug had a conversation with this dealer at the shot show and said no more. 

There weren't that many master engraved guns.  Most customers opted for the armory level of engraving.  I wouldn't want to guess on the number for either.  I've seen some on GB that were not done at the factory

[GaryG]

While I was there, one Hunter came back to get rebarrelled and one 30 carbine left.  I had a chance to shoot the 30 carbine and was surprised at the lack of recoil.  Very comfortable to shoot.

[yahoody]

Kinda off topic and may be requires a new thread.  Gary mentioned else where as " arriving in late 2005" at USFA.

With no public records available (that I know of) too get a handle on just how rare the USFA guns and the USPFA guns were before USFA I think one of the first things required is an accurate company time line. 

When was USPFA started and when did it change to USFA. 
When did USFA formally shut the doors?

Are any factory records available online?  Any company catalogs on line besides the one PDF I posted recently?

I originally bought USFA guns because they were the best of the traditional styled SAA guns I had ever seen as shooters.   I've not deviated from that path far.  The guns I have bought have been guns I would typically shoot.  But with so much speculation/collection buying in the USFA market in the last couple of years; the details, beginning to end, are going to become very important and directly tied to the value/prices of the USPFA guns and the USFA guns in the future.

This forum is a eclectic set of facts, thrown in with a a great deal of conjecture and opinion.  All of it totally unorganized.   May be we should think about changing that.  In the long run a reliable resource/data/info will benefit any USFA/USPFA owner.   

BTW, Nice gun Pangaea!   I was hoping you would post a good picture of that beauty.  I intentionally put out Kies' guns as bait    Is the engraver and grip maker known?  Are either signedSigned?  Any thought if this gun is a factory gun Gary?  Checkered ivory really ups the Omni game on Kies' other smooth ivory and fire blue screw Omni guns.

Engraving?  Which is what brought all this all to mind for me originally.  With no factory letters or legit provenance what does it matter?   Is an Adam's Sr. or Harper (both master Colt engravers at different times) signed master level gun worth any less than a Colt version by the same engraver?   The Colt factory version may well cost more at retail first time around but resale value is likely going to be a totally different story in my experience.  Master level engraved guns have to some of the best financial investments around these days for the original owners.