Mike Dubber
Elite Cafe Member
I just returned from Las Vegas and the Safari International Show. The show went very well and the SCI Auction Rifle sold for $145,000.00 at the Saturday Evening Banquet and Auction.
We did experience one tragedy that had me in a sweat. On Friday morning a guy with a I-Phone was trying to take pictures of the gun. Although we had a guard on duty and we were both watching, folks just could not help themselves from bending over the roped off display to get closer to the rifle for photos. One gent tripped over the easel and fell into the rear of the display. He and his I-Phone crashed into the butt plate and seriously damaged the bulino detail on the elephant. We did have the rifle bolted to the risers at the sling swivels so fortunately the gun was was not knocked to the floor!
After I regained my senses, and having absolutely no tools for repair, I went begging to the GRS Booth.
Sam and Aaron McMichael were there to help! They fixed me up with handful of tools and I went back to my display and did some repairs to the gold and platinum elephant on the butt plate using these tools and my Loupe...good enough so that most could not see the damage.
One of the tools that Sam lent me was a Micro Mark fiberglass brush. That was a fabulous thing to "erase" some of the damage. That allowed me to remove some of the abrasions so that I could "pick" the damaged bulino dots. I'll being going to their web site to day to buy one!
Photos (from my I-Phone) of the First-of-Series World Heritage SCI Auction rifle on display are attached here.
Thanks again to Sam and Aaron:clapping:
Note: the entire display shown here was included in the auction (rifle, walnut cadenza, and elephant leather trunk case)
Note: this was the butt plate before final finish and the damage. After the incident, there was a crescent shaped indention just above the elephant's left eye and abrasions on the the trunk and platinum tusks.
We did experience one tragedy that had me in a sweat. On Friday morning a guy with a I-Phone was trying to take pictures of the gun. Although we had a guard on duty and we were both watching, folks just could not help themselves from bending over the roped off display to get closer to the rifle for photos. One gent tripped over the easel and fell into the rear of the display. He and his I-Phone crashed into the butt plate and seriously damaged the bulino detail on the elephant. We did have the rifle bolted to the risers at the sling swivels so fortunately the gun was was not knocked to the floor!
After I regained my senses, and having absolutely no tools for repair, I went begging to the GRS Booth.
Sam and Aaron McMichael were there to help! They fixed me up with handful of tools and I went back to my display and did some repairs to the gold and platinum elephant on the butt plate using these tools and my Loupe...good enough so that most could not see the damage.
One of the tools that Sam lent me was a Micro Mark fiberglass brush. That was a fabulous thing to "erase" some of the damage. That allowed me to remove some of the abrasions so that I could "pick" the damaged bulino dots. I'll being going to their web site to day to buy one!
Photos (from my I-Phone) of the First-of-Series World Heritage SCI Auction rifle on display are attached here.
Thanks again to Sam and Aaron:clapping:
Note: the entire display shown here was included in the auction (rifle, walnut cadenza, and elephant leather trunk case)
Note: this was the butt plate before final finish and the damage. After the incident, there was a crescent shaped indention just above the elephant's left eye and abrasions on the the trunk and platinum tusks.
Last edited:
