Where have all the Bess gone?

[cigar_man]

This is a question that has been bothering me for some time.

Where have all the Brown Bess gone?

I live near Toronto, Ontario and usually go to all the gun shows.

This part of Canada at one time was rich with India Pattern 3rd Model Bess.

I rarely or shall I say, never see anything GOOD for sale.

When you think of it, I live in the center of allot of Canadian Bess History.

Battle of Stoney Creek, Burlington Heights (Hamilton), Queenston, Niagara Falls (Lundy’s Lane), Beaverdams, Battle of Chippawa, Siege of Fort Erie, Fort George, York (Toronto), Fort York, Kingston, Sacketts Harbour and so on.

Where in the H E double Hockey Sticks are all the Brown Bess?

 

[JP]

Shipped down to the USA, when our Dollar was low !

 

[tigger]

Banned as military assault weapons!!! (hope you know i am just kidding) I would like one myself if i could find one.

 

[cigar_man]

Shipped down to the USA, when our Dollar was low !

That answer has real merit.

Since the dollar is some what par, we seem to be buying back.

 

[wheaty]

Same as MANY years ago when containers of guns came from the UK to Canada and then about 15 to 20 years ago they went back when the pound went up, and the UK antique laws changed. Then the gun control saber rattling in Canada scared the crap out of the wheeler dealers so they divested of just about everything and went into model trains,watches and other items of value with no paper trail.

 

[Road King]

There are still lots of Bess's around the TO area and in Ontario. One of the reasons you are not seeing them out on tables at the local gun shows is that noboby seams to want to pay the value for them. Third model Bess's should be selling in the range of $3K, but most vendors are not getting over $2K for them, so they are being put back on the wall until the demand goes back up and they they start fetching their real value.

Market in the US for 3rd model Bess's are is starting to recover and you may see more of them heading south in the next little while. The demand for the Long Land and Short Land pattern has always been high in the US and that is where most of them will be found.

The older collectors from the 60s, 70s are now starting to either pass on their collections or being sold off through estates, but there are not as many collectors for the early military type guns as in the past. The new generation of collectors are more into the guns they can relate to, 20th century. Its like the demand for Model Ts in the car collecting world. What I'm trying to say is that it is a buyers market for Brown Bess's when you can find someone wanting to sell one for less then he paid for it.