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I’m still kicking myself for passing up Reichs back when they were affordable. I remember passing up a nice Snail Drum Trommel magazine for $600 back in the 90’s. Oh well. I have a 12” steel gong 85 yds from my backdoor and can frequently ring it with my #3’s. One is a Russian Model and the other 2 are 1878 New Models. I love the antique and historical pieces. I still shoot my 56-56 Spencer, 1863 Sharps, Snider-Enfield, etc, etc. I have an 1895 Winchester SRC in 30-40 Krag caliber that I’ve been told is the type of carbine carried by Teddy’s Rough Rider officers on San Juan Hill. If everyone held on to all of their old pieces, things wouldn’t be nearly as valuable today. Scratch my head every time I see the price tags on garden variety K98’s. I think my biggest regret is not stocking up on 32 Rimfire when Navy Arms was having it made in Brazil. I could a box of 32 Long for $15/50 if buying 4 or 5 boxes. One of those things I would have loaded up on if I’d known they were gonna discontinue it. I still have a couple hundred rounds of long and short and 150-200 rds of 41 Rimfire. I’ve a nice 1885 Winchester Low wall and a Remington Rolling Block and S&W
# 1 1/2 and # 2 among others in 32 RF but don’t shoot them as much as I used to. If my cancer recurs you can bet I’m gonna have a ball shooting up all of the rare and expensive ammo I’ve hoarded.

I have purchases a couple of French 1973 Ordinance revolvers as well. They are excellent double action revolvers, solid frame, very strong, but they fire a rather wimpy, difficult to find cartridge with a heeled bullet. The design was way ahead of its time. Hard to understand why they went with such an under-powered load. (Roughly a 170 gr bullet at about 450 fps). They had to use a wad to take up space in the case, to limit the black powder used!

Later, they produced a load for their navy (same revolver)which was reasonable, about a 200 gr .45 caliber bullet at about 700 fps. As a bureaucracy, when the navy stocks ran low... They discontinued the decent navy cartridge...

They are extremely well built revolvers, but they are slow to reload. I had a chance to grab another of those for a $1000 a few weeks ago... probably should have, but they are a specialty item.