k22 outdoorsman front sight

[aquagear]

I have a k22 Outdoorsman serial #6362XX. Reading somewhere els on the forum, I saw reference to the call gold bead sight only being put on the first 500 or so guns. Dose this have any affect on the value if this gun due to its rarity

[DCWilson]

Well the market is made up of opinions, so here's mine. You can factor it into what you hear from others.

If I had a choice between two K-22 ODs, unrefinished and in about 98% original condition, and if one had a Call gold bead sight and the other one a Call brilliant sight, I might be willing to go $50 more for the gold sight. But if the gun with the brilliant sight was late production and came with an original humpback hammer, I'd probably go higher on that one than on the gold sight version.

Remember that there were about 20,000 of these K-22 First Models manufactured during the 1930s, so in the grand scheme of things they are not exactly rare guns. The question is then whether a small subset of these guns is going to command a big premium. Maybe a small premium, but I doubt a big one. To revise someone else's famous remark, "There are more gold bead sight K-22s than there are gold-bead-sight K22 collectors."

Nice stags on yours, but a collector would probably rather see the original service stocks.

[aquagear]

Thanks for the info, been getting into collecting for a while sometimes it is hard to tell what will increase the value on anything collectable. I have several 5 screws that all need correct grips including the outdoorsman,all of my smiths are shooters (no safe queens) but I try to buy cleen examples, good finish little ware, good mechanical condition ect. I don't have a lot to spend, so I try to buy smart. I care moore about the condition than grips, those I can find later. For me finding a realy clean colectable shooter is the fun, guess I get a little hung up on what they are worth sometimes. We all like to think we got a good deal, or found that rare piece for a fraction of what its worth.