Finding a pre-1899 gun among junk
A reader from New Jersey emailed me this cool story …
I’ve been a follower of your blog for about three years now and I really enjoy it! I have a part time job working as a junker, basically people pay me and another guy to remove junk from their houses.
The other day a friend and I were clearing out a room in a lady’s house and came upon a rifle. I immediately ‘called it’ and was able to take it home. From my internet research, I was able to find out it is a Marlin Model 1889 32-20 caliber. It’s not in bad shape and most likely is able to fire.
A very lucky find! The Model 1889 was not produced for very long, just one decade I believe, so it it quite likely to be a pre-1899 firearm and therefore legally classified as an antique.
[ Many thanks to Scott for emailing us the story and photos. ]
I founded TFB in 2007 and over 10 years worked tirelessly, with the help of my team, to build it up into the largest gun blog online. I retired as Editor in Chief in 2017. During my decade at TFB I was fortunate to work with the most amazing talented writers and genuinely good people!
More by Steve Johnson
![[NRAAM 2024] The Barrett REC7 DI has returned!](https://cdn-fastly.thefirearmblog.com/media/2024/06/04/0643122/nraam-2024-the-barrett-rec7-di-has-returned.jpg?size=350x220)
![[NRAAM 2024] The NEW Taurus TX22 TORO is the best one yet](https://cdn-fastly.thefirearmblog.com/media/2024/06/04/0643116/nraam-2024-the-new-taurus-tx22-toro-is-the-best-one-yet.jpg?size=350x220)
Comments
Join the conversation
Deal with it the same way as finding a million dollars, don't skwak about it until you completely know what to do with it.
Lucky find though. Just the rifle, no ammo?
Scott (and anyone else with intrest in pre 1899 guns)
Head over to Survivalblog.com and search pre 1899 guns. They have a lot of information. Although most of the legal information is about the federal laws, it is a good place to start.