Daily Trivia: What is this?

[simple_gifts]

[img:center]

Perhaps easy for the enthusiasts.

[BarryinIN]

I know.

Without giving it away completely- it's in CT

[G-MAN]

The old Colt Armory in Hartford.

[BarryinIN]

Nice picture, Simple Gifts. That is a pretty thing.

We are planning a pole barn on the property here, and I'd like to have one about quarter size on top.

Maybe that wouldn't go over.

Now I can tell my Colt Blue Dome story.

Actually it's an Austin Behlert story.

I don't know how many here have heard of Austin Behlert. He was a gunsmith who died maybe eight to ten years ago. He was one of the innovators, making Officers-size 1911s long before Colt did, a similar chopped Hi-Power, was one of the early IPSC gun builders, a PPC revolver maker, etc, etc. One of the things I don't think he gets enough credit for is selling parts. He was one of the first to sell custom parts like extended safety levers, big magazine catch buttons and matched hammer and sear sets.

The gun I always wanted was one of his chopped HiPowers. I foolishly passed on one maybe 15 years ago for $650 (It seems like a no-brainer now, but at that time I had never paid more than half that for a used HiPower).

Austin Behlert used to post sporadically on one of the early gun forums. In one of his posts on the Mini-HP, I remarked that I had passed that one up and had been kicking myself ever since. Somewhat to my surprise, I got a PM from him asking if I would like to see a picture of a presentation Mini-HP he made for an Indian prince or some such. I said I sure would, sent my address like he asked, and that was the last I thought about it.

To my greater surprise, I got a big envelope in the mail a couple of weeks later from Mr Behlert. In it were pictures of that fancy HiPower, some other pictures of guns, and of people from the gun world of the early to mid 70s whose names I knew only from reading gun magazines when I was supposed to be paying attention to school teachers. Best of all was a letter from him telling bout the pictures and various things from his career.

One of the pictures was of Colt's Blue dome. It was taken from a closer distance than most I've seen. It turns out that he used to load the family up in the station wagon and make a trip to Hartford from his PA home about twice a year. Colt would have some guns set aside for him that had been returned for repairs and had stumped them. Behlert would work his magic on these problem guns and Colt would be happy. My guess is that this was how he managed to get Colt parts back when other gunsmiths had a really hard time getting them.

Anyway, he took the picture of the dome on one of these trips, apparently stopping right in the lane of the highway and getting out of the car to do it.

Within a couple of weeks of receiving that envelope, I read Austin Behlert had passed away.

The man didn't know me from Adam. He just thought I'd like to see those pictures and read about them. He was right. I treasure them. There could be 500 copies of them for all I know, but I was touched he took the time to send them to me and describe them.

I'll try to scan and put the pictures up here. It's the weekend though, and my daughter will have the computer by the scanner monopolized, and it's be acting up besides. I'll see what I can do.

[Pablo]

Very, very cool story.

Neat picture.

I drove by there once on a business trip.

[BarryinIN]

I'll be darned. I found someone making reproductions of the dome for your house.

http://www.archrepro.com/projectsheets/coltsdome.html

[BarryinIN]

Additions to the above Austin Behlert story:

The envelope was postmarked Sept 15, 2005, so he must have died by Oct 2005- 6 years ago. More recent than I thought.

On the back of the picture of the blue dome he wrote he went to Colt about six times a year- not two as I said. That makes more sense. If he went there to fix their problem guns and only went every six months, customers would have a long wait.

[BarryinIN]

OK, here are the pictures:

The first is his picture of the blue dome, taken from the highway:

Next is of the Mini-BHP that started this correspondence:

He wrote this gun was shown at the NRA Show in the late 80s and was the cover gun of Guns magazine May 1987 issue. So I would assume it was the 86 or 87 NRA Show.

It cost the owner $14,000 to make back then. The box was $1,800 and made from 100-year-old birdseye maple and walnut by Robert Whitley.

Engraving and gold inlay was done by former Winchester engraver Hank Bonham.

The next picture is the most interesting to me. Mr Behlert wrote some of the names on the back, but not all. I knew about half of them from reading gun books and magazines. I sent a scan of this to Dean Spier of The Gun Zone and it took some figuring from him and some people he knew, but I think we got them all identified, plus figured out the time it was taken. He posted it here http://thegunzone.com/people/old-timers.html

It was determined to be at the 1977 Eastern Regional IHMSA (Silhouette) Championships, at Camp Curtis Guild, MA, which was held on Labor Day weekend of that year.

Front Row Kneeling, L to R: Ron Ricci, John Adams, Dan Wesson, and J.D. Jones

Back Row, Standing, L to R: Elgin Gates, Warren Center, Bob Zwirz, Austin Behlert, and John Towle

Dan Wesson was, obviously, the founder of Dan Wesson Arms.

J.D. Jones is a columnist for American Handgunner and handgun hunter of game all over the world

Elgin Gates founded IHMSA

Warren Center started Thompson Center with K.W. Thompson

Bob Zwirz wrote and edited for Guns and Gun World

Austin Behlert was one of the top gunsmiths of the time

The other three were top silhouette shooters of the time.

I think it's a pretty neat picture of a gathering of people who steered handgunning in the 70s. At least half are gone now, some within a couple of years of that picture.