Sometimes I get a wild notion and just surf around. I was on GB this morning and decided to see what the most expensive item(s) they had listed, and found this listing.

If you've got a spare $1,750,000.00 lying around, you might like to add 2 Winchester pre-64 Model 70 rifles, serial numbers 1 and 2.

Yes, that's one million, seven hundred fifty thousand dollars. Chump change for some of you...

Meh, I've already got a 30-06.

For real though, those rifles are magnificent. A pre 64 Model 70 will be mine one day... they feel amazing in the hands.

Somebody's looking to retire on one sale. Its a huge jump from when #2 was at the gun show a few years back (OK, maybe 10 or 15). It was on the tables/end camp beside us for $33,000) but didn't sell. I liked it and the seller did let me handle it. It was just great.

But I was under the impression that #1 was in the Winchester Museum in Cody, WY. Something smells fishy here.

Long ago, my gun show partner called me on Christmas Eve. He died in 2007, so that gives you a time frame. He asked what I was doing and I told him working. He suggested I bug out and head down to Lexington because they had a gun there I needed. I told him I couldn't, I was the prick who was the reason the rest of the inmates were working till maybe 3:00 or so.

So he said it really didn't matter, he put the gun on layaway for me. Its what friends are for. So kind of rudely I asked him what I'd just bought. He said a low number M70. And I came back with the idea I'd just bought one. He said he knew, but to him that was a high number gun with a serial way up in the 2600s. Continuing the game we played on the phone, I pointed out it was a very early 2nd year gun. He said just fill my pockets with cash and 'come on down".

So it was the day after Christmas when I finally got away. The gun was #202. In what I considered to be very good condition. It did come home with me. Its good to have a bird dog looking out for your interests. Gun reseller David Carroll was over a few months back and looked at it and commented "interesting serial number". I'm not smart enough to understand if that means maybe the price has gone up since I bought it.

The reason I bought the one before that was because it had a BalVar 8 scope on it. That was the scope of my dreams when I was young. I didn't waste time on Playboys, I looked at American Rifleman. And at least once a year there'd be a M70 with one of those. Because we kept all of the magazines (still have them now, 60 or so years later). I was pretty sure that in our poverty I'd never see one in person, much later own one I kept that magazine out, on a table near my bed. Just so it'd be the first thing I'd see if I woke up.

You rich boys now have old Corvettes, I have my M70. Or two!