Dr. Bob,
Yeah, it's a very different collector group.
The "militaria" guys are history buffs, not really gun make/design/beauty buffs. They get all wet over a poorly assembled, mediocre design "tin cup" (your apt phrase) which maybe, possibly, could have been used somewhere near where a battle was fought during the War of Northern Aggression...and it isn't really about the quality/design etc of the gun itself. Its more of a time/place association of a gun as an ARTIFACT...not a piece of mechanical art.
It's just an entirely different asthetic.
We had a couple over for dinner a couple years back, and i was told ahead of time that the guy "really knows his old guns...u guys will talk for hours." Turned out he knew quite a bit about different "pattern" military guns used (or...possibly used) in certain war battles.
As for doubleguns, he offered that he had "heard of Parker."
Again, it's just a whole different asthetic. Some very nice and informative guys, but, really a different kind of crowd.
NDG
