Every gun I've bought has been one I could hold in my hands, or from a person I knew from the boards, at least by reputation. I'd be scared to bid on an auction gun, especially an expensive SBT because so many of them have had the bejeezuz shot out of them. I don't have the disposable income anymore to be buying something that turns out to be a wall hanger :eek:!

Back when the catalogs I have were printed Flayderman was one of the few avenues for acquiring things . His sales catalogs as I refer to them were very much like Leroy Merz’s catalogs are today . You bought it paid for it they shipped when it arrived you had a day or so to look it over and if you didn’t want it call them and tell them it was coming back .

Here are some pictures of 176795. Made in 1917. Straight Grip. 34" Barrel.

That's a great era for Parker engraving. What a nice gun!

That’s a very early, first year production SBT. An earlier post on this forum discusses these first SBT’s.

I don’t have one with the all scroll on the floor plate , however the first one I tried to buy was of the scroll on floor plate era .

Gunner, to keep you from having to locate that older thread, my early SC is serial number 176,128. It is a nice gun with colors and great general condition. The lever is to the left, but the condition doesn't indicate how it got that way.