The best for last. A plain-jane pre-war Woodsman. Here's another Colt acquired from the same gentleman that provided me with the Model 1909 New Service .45. He and I spent a number of years together shooting rifles off of the bench rests at the local gun club range. He also provided me with lessons on how to enjoy a retirement and how to age with grace and dignity. He was also the world's finest conversationalist which is almost a lost art form.
When my friend began to rapidly loose his vision due to macular degeneration he asked me if there were a few of his guns that I'd like to have. I'd long admired his Colt Woodsman which had provided him with such enjoyment and was the basis for some of his stories. He'd given it a lifetime of careful use and loving care. He'd purchased the Woodsman in the summer of 1928 while working at the William Crites gun shop in downtown San Antonio, Texas.
He had worked at Mr. Crites shop several years, always in the summers between semesters of attending a military school in Kerrvile, Texas and latter when attending the University of Texas (where he studied under and came to personally know J. Frank Dobie of Texas literature fame). Of course he spent a lot of his earnings in the shop. I have the honor of owning several of these purchases.
He wanted a good quality .22 pistol to compliment the Colt New Service Model 1909 .45 Colt his father purchased from the San Antonio Arsenal in 1920. The family had a huge ranch deep in Mexico and spent a couple of months down there each winter hunting deer, collecting the rents and crop payments from the Mexican tenants. A young man could have a time with a .22 pistol while roaming the ranch.
Mr. Crites didn't have a Woodsman in stock but told my friend he'd order one. By and by it arrived and my friend was excited to see it. Mr. Crites told him however that he''d have to charge him full retail price on this particular purchase. My friend had been used to the generous discount that Mr. Crites had always provided but didn't quibble and respectfully paid the $32 price for the pistol. He though it a bit strange but said no more about it. He dedicated himself to shooting only ammunition featuring noncorrosive priming (recall that Clean-Bore priming had only come out the year before) in the gun and cleaning it with Winchester Crystal Cleaner. He purchased a Heiser holster and a Boyt leather, fleece-lined, zippered pistol case for his new .22 pistol. He and the pistol went on to have many adventures in Mexico and on their ranch in Kerrvile.
Fast forward to 1994 when he offered to sell his treasured Colt to me. It was in excellent used condition. I offered him $600 for the pistol and he said: "no, I only paid $32 for it brand new. You can have it for $200." I said "no, that isn't fair to you. It's an outstanding example of a Woodsman and you've kept it so well that you should receive a fair price. I'll give you $500 for it. "Naw" he said. "It's only shooter and I want you to have it. I'll take $300 for it." "Now Cres, that's not right" I said. "That gun in that condition is worth every bit of $600 on the present market. Would you at least take $450 for it. I'd be honered to have it to remember all your tales and you know it'd be going to a good home." He replied: "you're the only other person I've ever seen that was as fastidious about his gun maintenance as I am. I want you to have it and I won't take more than $400 for the gun". The deal was done. We were to go through this same pattern of "reverse bargaining" several more times on his fine firearms.
I queried him in detail about the history of the Woodsman, the purchase, and some of the tales he'd told, writing them down. Some 66 years later he was still puzzled why Mr. Crites had made him purchase the pistol for full list price.
A year or two later I got around to ordering a factory letter from Colt. The day it arrived I excitedly took the envelope to his house, only then opening it so we could share its contents. The letter cleared up the matter of the retail price for him when I read it aloud. He chuckled satisfyingly. The letter said the Woodsman was one of two Woodsman pistols shipped to the Topperwein Hardware Company, San Antonio, Texas in June of 1928. He explained:
"Back then Ad Topperwein and wife "Plinky" of Winchester exhibition shooting fame ran a gun shop around the corner from Mr. Crites' establishment in downtown San Antonio. They were friendly competitors and frequented each other's shops almost daily when Topperwein wasn't out of town with his shows. A back alley connected the two shops. Many times on slow days we three, along with my dad on occasion, would sit around talking business, politics, guns and hunting. It is obvious that Mr. Crites only went around the corner to Topperweins to get me that Woodsman. Topperwein must have charged him full price so he charged me."
Cres got a big kick out of finally finding out why the Woodsman was so costly.
We enjoyed several more great years together afterward. He never failed to accompany me to the range after he could no longer see just so he could "smell the odor of the burning powder." He passed away in November of 2001 at 95 years of age. He was my best gun crony. I've got the Woodsman and some great memories and stories to go with it. The opportunity to share a factory letter from a firearm from the "classic" days of firearms manufacturing with the original owner was almost unique and was an event that I wouldn't take for.
