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Identify this California Gun Brochure
droptop
Member Posts: 8,367 ✭✭
Scanned from a brochure I had. No date was listed. Does anyone have an idea of the date.
The store also had an location in Afton VA.
Other freedoms are IN COURT NOW and under attack. Click to read latest report.
The store also had an location in Afton VA.
Other freedoms are IN COURT NOW and under attack. Click to read latest report.
Comments
Mark T. Christian
Gold Rush probably used a factory image for the brochure. Based on the responses I'd think their VA office was doing the importing.
Looks cheap,, but that was more than my house payment and my older friends thought I was nuts for buying such an expensive house !!! No telling what they would have thought if I'd bought a gun for over $300.00.
This is a link to one side of the FULL (ie: big) image with a few other SIG prices. It is 200K but the text is readable.
http://www.websoft2000.com/af/goldrrush1full.jpg
Other freedoms are IN COURT NOW and under attack. Click to read latest report.
Mark T. Christian
Research comments were that sometime in late 70's some guns were "made up" from parts. Some very early models had the bayonet lug, that seems rare. Found this quote,, and it seems Bennet / Gold Rush were same company.
QUOTE
I spoke with Bill Edwards (traded as Benet Arms and Gold Rush Guns in the 1960s & 1970s) - Bill was the first and original importer of the SIG AMT, in fact it was his idea to do a .308 cal "civilianized" version of the PE-57 rifle for the US market and he convinced SIG to do the conversion. He confirmed the serial number as one of the first shipment of five rifles to arrive on US shores just prior to the 1968 gun control act (he actually said late 1967)
Whew,,, found this photo from 1968 edition of the Shot Gun News has the early price and bayonet lug.
http://www.biggerhammer.net/sigamt/publishedimages.html
Other freedoms are IN COURT NOW and under attack. Click to read latest report.
Ok,, why is one better than other?
There were some minor differences between importers (Benet, Mandall, Osborne's, etc.), usually barrel and flash hider type and inclusion of wood top cover, but they were all pretty much the same quality gun--I was just giving Mark a bad time.
I don't really recall when Mandall began to import the AMT but it was probably in the late 1970's or very early 1980's and they were the only ones importing the PE-57 for many years. When the dollar rebounded in the middle '80s a small one man operation called Osbornes in Michigan began to privately import all sorts of SIG and Hammerli pistols at prices well under what Mandalls, by then the exclusive US importer, was selling them at but by then most of the AMTs being imported were parts "clean up" assembled rifles and most did not seem to measure up to the high standards of the earlier rifles. At the very end of the "good old days" SIGARMS listed the PE-57 in their catalog but I don't know if any of these rifles was ever actually imported by SIGARMS before the 1989 ban hit and the party ended. The easiest way to tell who imported what is to simply read the information stamped on the rifles as the importer will be clearly identified. I am having all sorts of trouble posting photos tonight (for reasons unknown) so I cannot post a photo of my own AMT and PE-57. Well Photobucket seems to be working this morning so here goes:
If you look closely you can see the bayonet lug as well as the built in grenade lauching feature on the larger PE-57 rifle while the AMT has no lug and a smooth contoured barrel. The cleaning kit roll, which sits below the SIG decal, was purchased directly from SIG in Switzerland at a cost (in 1980) of nearly $40. Today I can purhcase them for around $6 at gun shows!
Mark T. Christian