- I thought I'd bring you in some eye candy here.
CLERK: Some eye candy, I thought it was a gun.
[LAUGHS]
Well this is cool.
BOOMER: It's a rifle put out by Rector from the 1840s.
CLERK: I like it.
But I usually think of eye candy as a pretty girl.
[LAUGHS]
BOOMER: I have a hunting rifle that was made by Rector.
I'm a collector.
I go out and I find antiques, and then I'll
pass them on to somebody else to enjoy them.
I would like $3,200 for the rifle.
The least amount of money that I'm willing to take
is probably $1,200.
CLERK: This is really neat.
Where did you get this thing?
BOOMER: I found it on the internet,
and did some research on it.
OK.
Rector made his claim to fame by making target rifles.
He put out a total of about five of these hunting guns.
And this is the very first one. CLERK: OK.
I'm not familiar with Rector.
But he was a gunsmith, obviously in Syracuse, New York.
There was thousands and thousands
of gun makers in the United States before the Civil War.
Every small town had someone who made guns.
BOOMER: Yes sir.
CLERK: I mean, most guns like this, the hardware
was like English imports, French imports.
Because this looks really European right here.
The whole reindeer thing, everything going on.
And you can tell this is definitely by an American maker
here, because this is the skinny federal eagle.
It was a lot skinnier before the Civil War.
And then it sort of fattened up afterwards.
Don't ask me why.
BOOMER: All right.
CLERK: It's interesting.
I like it.
This gun is really neat.
But I've never heard of the gunsmith, J. H. Rector.
Early gunsmiths in America, some are collectibles.
Some are not quite collectible.
So before I put a value on this thing,
I need to know more about the gun.
And I need to know more about the gunsmith.
How much you want for it?
I'm going to ask $3,200 for it.
CLERK: OK.
I haven't heard of this Rector guy,
so do you mind if I have someone look at it?
BOOMER: I think that would be great.
OK it is cool looking though.
Thank you.
CLERK: This is it.
Yeah, OK.
Yeah, Look at that.
J. H. Rector, Syracuse, New York.
Guns made in America before the Civil
War are popular for collectors.
So one of the important things about Rector,
he was really well known for target rifles.
Which this is not.
This is a hunting rifle. - Yes.
ALEX CRANMER: This actually would
have been a higher quality over-under hunting rifle.
The reason you want an over-under is it
gives you two shots.
So if you're actually trying to shoot something,
you'd click that hammer back, pull the front trigger,
and then this trigger.
That's right.
So if you missed on the first one, or you wounded an animal
and it was running away, you'd get a second shot.
You wouldn't have to take the time to reload.
I'd like to see if it's rifled.
These are actually fishing lures for nighttime.
But I use them as bore lights.
You drop them down, and then we can
see if the barrels are rifled.
And they are, but very, very shallow.
So that means basically this gun was really well used.
Look, it's a hunting rifle.
So whoever had this probably shot a lot of game.
You can tell this because the rifling, which is what we call
shot out, and the finishes of the silver mounts
has been mostly rubbed away.
CLERK: So what do you think it's worth?
ALEX CRANMER: I think a fair market
value is $1,500 to $1,750.
OK.
ALEX CRANMER: Some of his target rifles, where they're really
heavy barreled and they're much more ornate,
those can go for $3,500, maybe even $5,000
if you have a really nice example.
This is a hunting rifle.
It's an early Rector, so that's something.
But as a gun in itself, and it's also very worn,
that all detracts from the value.
Well thanks, man.
I appreciate it.
ALEX CRANMER: Nice to meet you.
CUSTOMER: Same here.
ALEX CRANMER: Good luck.
So at this point, what are you willing to take?
I think $1,200 would be a good price.
I think $1,000 would be better.
You know what happens with old guns
when you put them in a store?
People walk up and go, that's cool.
And then walk away.
It's neat, but I've got to make some money on it.
And I'll probably sit on it for a year.
How about if we split the difference?
$1,100.
What the hell, $1,100 bucks.
BOOMER: All right.
OK, I'll meet you right over there
and we'll do some paperwork, OK?
BOOMER: After hearing the expert,
I believe that $1,100 was a fair price for both of us.
There's a couple of antiques I've had my eye on,
so this will give me a chance to buy those
and do some more research.