A number of years ago a good friend of mine that was a well established gun writer bestowed upon me the very first Thompson Center Black Diamond muzzle loader rifle ever made. I'm talking it is the original proto type. No markings on it anywhere, no serial number, no lettering, nothing. It was the first ever. When he gave it to me he asked me to not sell it while he was alive, as he said it was worth quite a bit of money to those in the know. In other words collector's that like one of kind T/C firearms. Sadly my friend passed away several years ago. Now I don't know if I will eventually sell the rifle or not, but I'd sure like to know, at least roughly, what it is worth? Anyone know of a place where a guy could get a good honest estimate of it's worth? Any T/C collector sites out there?

Do you have a way to document that it was indeed the first since there is no markings on it? And wouldn't it be nomal to produce a few "firsts" for testing. Not trying to throw a fly in the ointment, but questions that would have to be answered to determine worth.

I'm sure someone at T/C could verify it, but I'm not sure how one would go about tracking that someone day. I certainly don't have the connections my deceased friend did.

BigSky,
It might be worth the $30.00 bucks to join the THOMPSON/CENTER ASSOCIATION and kinda poke around their website. They may have information, people to contact, etc., etc. I've been meaning to join for years now but just haven't done it. TxHunter58 is right, you need to think of all possible questions now, and then go about finding the answers. Good luck. Keep your progress posted here, I think all of us would like to know what you find out.

Mike

i have a tc hawken laminated stock ,tc claims to have only made 8 of them. you would think it would be worth alot,its one of those things there is not much market for.

While there are still people at TC who know about this ML you need to get paper documentantion to establish what the ML is. It would be best on TC letterhead and should be signed by employees who worked on the ML and can write up its history. Photos of those people with the ML are invaluable. When it comes time to sell if you do not have a good verifiable provenance with the ML it will be difficult to establish what it is and its value will suffer.

So in so many words , right now , your black diamond is probably not worth anything more then any other black diamond rifle in the same condition .
Basically what you have is sadly , hear say .
Now that’s not to challenge your friends word . Im not doing that at all . He may very well have been right .
But for those “In the Know “ its about what documented proof OR what they can easily document as proof . Past that the field gets even smaller and goes to those who actually worked on the development of the prototype . In which case THEY can authenticate its being the actual , first prototype .
So basically at this point you have no proof other then the word of your friend . Which would be a lot more helpful if it was in writing . Beings he was a Gun writer of some reputation , then that would be a base to start the authentication on . But with out that information being in writing ,sadly all you have is a story .

Could you find the magazine that he may have written an article about that gun. I would do all I could do to find one.

Big Sky...

I have no idea what your rifle is worth, but to me... if it were mine, I'd consider it "priceless".

Not only from the standpoint of it being the first... the "original" rifle of it's type, but consider as well from whom you received it and why it was given so unselfishly and with great friendship.

A man doesn't sell a rifle like that... he keeps it until he passes and, even then, he tries to see to it that the next owner will treasure it as much as he, personally, has treasured it.

Under these circumstances, the rifle truly is "priceless", n'est pas, mon ami?


Strength & Honor...

Ron T.