Tucked away in the “100s” the collector section at NRAAM took up the first aisle of the Georgia World Congress Center exhibition hall and the assemblage of preservationists, auction houses and relic curators had a rare firearm exhibit open to the public rivaling anything you could see in a museum.
I went poking through them.
A Colt Python owned by Elvis that has been in the news lately
The Georgia Collector’s Association was on hand with an extensive collection of antebellum-era master gunsmith/silversmith/militia colonel Wiley G. Higgins, who made firearms in the Indian Springs area of Monroe County (which was the frontier in the early 1800s and capital of the Creek Indian Nation) prior to the Civil War. He was a fan of extensive patch box work on his stocks
How about a correct U.S. Navy Model 1861 Plymouth Rifle with bayonets brought to the show by the Virginia Gun Collectors Association? Just 10,000 of these .69 caliber muzzle loaders were made for the sea service during the Civil War and the OSS later wound up buying 500 from a surplus dealer in World War II to arm local militias in the Pacific islands.
