So myself and my best gun buddy were at OGCA and it was an annual display show where guys with specific collections and displays set up their stuff and judges pick which they like best... in and amongst the typical show where we buy, sell and trade.

Forum poster THEROLLINGSTONES is a guy who is local(ish) to me and to this show and who may also be one of the premier PC semiauto collectors in existence. I met him 2 years previous when he had set up for same thing and we had a great time chatting about PC guns then and on this day also. I wish he was a little more active on these pages but I get the feeling that computers frustrate him a little bit... but a fine gentleman to chew the fat with for an hour at gun show, no doubt.

So my buddy and I were chatting with him and another couple guys there when these three others guys walk up kinda behind us, and to our right.

Two older and one quite younger. Guy on left doesn't say much, young guy on right is very quiet but the big, tall white haired & bearded guy is VERY energetic and outgoing and smiling and sharing tales right away, standing next to me at this point.

As the conversation was covering all areas of S&W pistols, I don't recall if they were discussing an early PC gun or maybe a Devel, but the big guy says, "well ya know how I got that pistol, right? Paul gave it to me. Paul Liebenberg!"

And the big guy is standing immediately next to me and looks down at the 5906 I happen to be holding and he says "whaddya got?" and I handed it to him and I said "it's an early 5906" and he said "hey, it's nice" and he points directly at the rear sight and he said "what is this?"

I said "well yeah, that is a Novak rear sight" and the question caught me a bit off guard as it would seem terribly odd that a gentleman so familiar with S&W pistols would hesitate even a moment in seeing the iconic Novak sight.

And he looks at it and says "yeah, I know! I made it!" and most of the gathered group laughs except myself and my buddy -- then I look at his damn member badge and of course it's Wayne Novak that we have been shooting the breeze with... 😂

And then yes, laughs all around... and I just bet that Mr. Novak has maybe pulled that gag on other unsuspecting enthusaists before.

And THAT is precisely why I still go to gun shows. You just never know who you are going to meet.

I never meet anyone cool at Gun Shows -- just other old duffers like me.

But that is a good story. Wayne Novak is a legend.

And I have two 3d Gens (a 915 and a 5906) that were sent to Parkersburg, WV this year for Novak's to install their classic sights on. The 915, of course, had that old fashioned bump sight, and Novak's had to re-cut the dovetail. They still do excellent work.

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S&W Rover

....Then there was the time that Horace and D.B. and I hung out at a gun show and went for beers afterward....they argued about why the company wasn't named Wesson & Smith....it ended in a fistfight, and I left before the cops got there.....but not before they stiffed me on the tab....

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Ukraine -- now more than ever

Not as good a story as yours, but. I was in line waiting for the doors to open, and the guy in front of me says the traffic wasn't bad coming over. I asked, where are you coming from, he says Titusville. To make a long story short, I worked with him at Cape Canaveral on the Titan Program. I worked for LMT, and he worked for CSD, the ones who made our solids. I still says gun people are the best people around, for the most part. Oh, and thank you Sevens, for getting me hooked on 2nd gen's.

No complaining on that bar tab... I'm sure that a Double Eagle covered it with tip.

Oops... Double Eagle? A mixed metaphor?

Hey cherrypointmarine, not so fast. My entire plan includes 1st Gens and 3rd Gens also, so stay tuned & save the thanks!

And hmmmm.... wow, this crowd is slipping! I opened this tale very clearly about a GUN SHOW and nobody has even thought to ask about the Model 59 and the Model 3906 that I found and took home with me? Nobody cares about the 5906 that has been handled personally by Wayne Novak?! Hahaha...!

Also, PS, it has been my experience in nearly 30 years of shooting, collecting, sportsman & gun clubs and especially in gun shows that "old duffers" are the -BEST- guys you'll meet. They handle themselves a little differently, they come from an earlier time and you learn a heap from them.

I have long been studying to BECOME one!

The story would have been easier to understand if I knew what PC stood for! If your going to use an acronym, please define it the first time you use it. Not everyone is as knowable as you!

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Bill

Haha, with much apologies.

"PC" refers to the elite Performance Center guns... a truly magical time in modern S&W history. Genuine "lightning in a bottle", a real custom shop put together in the very early 1990's. I believe that former competition great and later top-level Pistolsmith Paul Liebenberg was the man hired to organize and execute the beginning of the PC and one of their first jobs was to do the last few runs of Model 52 pistols and shortly after... the original 200 units of the PC 952 pistol, a Bangers Distributors exclusive.

The PC went on to build without argument THE finest semiauto pistols ever to come out of S&W, including the 52/952, 845, PC "Shorty" and "stocking dealer" pistols, the 3566 Limited and all the 945's.

The Performance Center does not exist anymore. The great name and classy logo have now been prostituted out as added feature models in the plastic pistol and revolver line... which is a stake through the heart of afficianados of the genuine PC guns of years gone by.

Wayne Novak is the Pistolsmith and man behind the Novak low-mount carry sight and was also a large contributor in the array of changes and upgrades that comprised the 3rd Generation of S&W pistols.

Oh, and just for fun... only if you lovingly refer to them as "pick" pistols (nobody ever has...) would "PC" be an acronym. "PC" is an abbreviation. An acronym is an abbreviation that is spoken as a word, such as SCUBA, RADAR or the current S&W as we know it... "FUB..." Hope you know the rest as the filter won't let me enter it in a post.

what threw me off at first is when the white haired fella you refered to ended up being wayne. i know wayne and had some dealings with him over the years although i recall his hair was brown the last time i saw him. then again it's been such a long time ago that i had hair back then.

Brown hair? Not any longer apparently.

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yup that's him! at least he has hair. that's more than i can say

Should have asked him why his shop turns down my 1911 work, they always have time for the Hi Powers and 3rd Gens though.

Cool story.

Not nearly as cool, but I once ran into John Taffin at the Cabela's in Boise.

Coolest "O.D." I ever met was Brig. Gen. Tex Hill, the fighter pilot, who used to put in appearances at the old AstroArena gunshows back in the late 70s/early 80s. A true gentleman and a genuine hero.
Back then I had a dark brown beard and black hair. Now my beard looks like it's stained with tobacco ('tai'nt, gave it up years ago) and what hair there is is a dirty white. So I'm an Old Duffer myself, although truth be told, some of my students, the respectful ones at least, called me Ol' Gangsta, because of my beard and the suits I'd wear in the classroom.

I just stumbled onto this old thread and loved it. My surprise is that another voracious collector and occasional poster here hasn’t jumped in. He’s an attorney and travels a bunch on cases. He found himself in Parkersburg on business and stopped by the Novak shop. Wayne installed sights for him while he waited.

The gentlemen around here are lucky to have such a dignified term as "old duffer." I can't think of a similar term for we of the distaff. I get refered to as "spinster" much too often, as well as terms which won't be mentioned here. (Although I had a fourth grade teacher who greatly influenced me in my choice of career, who reveled in the term "hussy," she was anything but. I think I'd like to see that term make a comeback, maybe on my headstone.)

I haven't heard the term "spinster" used in a loooong time........I thought it had been replaced by "crazy cat lady"

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witty signature goes here

How about "good broad?"

Sent from my XT1710-02 using Tapatalk

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CPT, Armor (Ret)
Luke 22:36

There are hussies....

Then there are brazen hussies!

How does one get the promotion?

(And don't say, "By being brazen.")

John?

usually happens after a consuming a lot of cheap wine or tequilla

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witty signature goes here

My only brush with gun greatness was in the early 70s. Sadly, there were no S&Ws involved. My buddy and I were shooting rats and tin cans at a rural northern Michigan dump. He had a Remington Nylon 66 and I had a Colt Frontier Scout. This big, bearded guy showed up and started lighting things up with a Ruger Super Blackhawk. We played show and tell with our guns and he told us he had cut the little slots in the barrel of his .44 to reduce muzzle rise.

Our main takeaway was that the guy had to be filthy rich to afford to shoot rats with a .44 magnum. It was awhile later that we realized he was Larry Kelly.

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I need ammo, not a ride.

Given my druthers, I prefer sangria. It works for me.

Met some fine guys like Dick Casull, Charlton Heston and a few others at work or through shooting, but my favorite was this gentleman that stopped by the range to shoot a 1911 years ago, my hair is white now also. I have always been a fan and he was really interesting to visit with, truly a regular guy. Just watched The Right Stuff this morning.

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Whoa, is that Chuck Yeager?

Back in the day, he would be described as having B@lls of Brass. Don't know about these days.

Did he ask if you were related to Pancho?

John?

Wow, memories! I was a child of the missile program. My dad worked for Lockheed missile back in the 50s through the 60s. Heavily involved in the Polaris program. Spent a lot of time at Patrick AFB. (Satellite Beach)
Recently was digging through some very old pictures, talk about a barren area back then. My mom worked at The Mousetrap, the only bar in Cocoa Beach at that time. That's where all the astronauts would come hang out.

I enjoy the Pasadena, Texas guns shows. There is always the odd thing out. And the group of familiar firearms instructors hawking lessons, a few S&W and Colt revolver dealers, some very proud of their merchandise, others willing to deal. A few old guys that know me selling antique milsurps out of their private collections. Stacks of cheap magazines if you can find what you want. Expensive bayonets that you dare not explain what they really are to the dealer, lest the price goes up. The top dollar magazine dealer that has almost every mag new including S&W 4506 Mags. Politicians trying to show they are second amendment friendly. The marine corps firearm raffle that I have not won in almost 20 years of trying. The free samples of smoked meat and crafts to keep the women amused. All in all a good time, but no Mr. Novack to my knowledge.

I gave up on the Pasadena shows a few years ago. Too crowded, too expensive. I hope it's changed.

Joe Foss used to be a regular at the Crossroads shows here in Arizona. He was always interesting to talk to!
Jim

I have it on good authority that our charming barbara_em is indeed pictured here, as indicated by the circle.

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Drat! My secret is out!