Bill:
My experience has been that the previously owned Freedom Arms Model 83 single actions sell for about 80% of the original MSRP (Manufacturers Suggested Retail Price or List Price) if they are in like new condition and if they have been used the price ranges from about 60% to 80% if they are in excellent condition. This applies to the Premium finished revolvers. If they are the Field Grade models then the used prices seem to be at least 10% less than the Premium Grade or the used prices range from 50% to 70% of the original list price.
If the used Freedom Arms revolver is not in excellent condition I would not consider purchasing it.
You can sometimes pick up a scope mount and scope in the range of used prices above, as a bonus.
Good luck on your potential acquisition.
J.D. Press
*****
J.D. Press may accurately characterize pricing for used
FA Casulls. With the addenda of tradmark’s caution that a used
FA may not depreciate at all and progun’s good fortune to buy an unrecognized gem.
While the prestige factor favors a
Premium grade, it is important to know that
beneath the skin, a Premium and a Field Grade are one and the same. While the Premium comes with a better rear sight, and more options are available----such as octagon barrel----the Field Grade carries every bit the same workmanship and guts. When Wayne and Bob Baker showed up at the
IHMSA Internationals just over thirty years ago, Dick Casull’s revolver was available in no other chambering than
.454 Casull. Wayne Baker and Elgin Gates immediately clashed, a pair of egos practically ready to duel. Elgin’s hackles raised straight up as Wayne Baker told him----here goes a declarative statement----“The .454 Casull will blow those rams clean off the rail!”
Time for a pail of water. Alone with Wayne, I ask if anything can eliminated from the revolver to get the price down, without sacrificing performance. “The brushed finish is labor intensive,” says Wayne. At this time, all FA’s are “premier grade,” without stating so on the frame. I suggest to Baker the silhouetter needs a “field grade.” (In 1980 I had suggested to Dick Deitz and Jim Stekl that Remington sponsor “Field Rifle Silhouette,” a game for factory stock carbines and rifles to be shot offhand at 100, 150, and 200 meters. But I think the term “field grade” was such a natural that it fell on several minds simultaneous.) As Wayne Baker continues to emphasize the hard-hitting authority of the .454 Casull, I try to explain the limiting factor of recoil----cumulative recoil----in this case eighty rounds straight through for the
Revolver category alone, with another eighty rounds when you shoot the revolver in
Standing. When I propose the Freedom Arms Casull be made in .44 Mag, Wayne exclaims. “We only make it in .454 Casull.” And that was that. I push on the recoil argument. Since
Bo-Mar made the very best adjustable sight, I recommend Freedom Arms furnish a silhouette model with Bo-Mar rear and a target blade sight.
Pachmayr president Bruce Baker (no relation to Wayne) was in attendance, and I introduced the two, specifically to suggest Pachmayr make a grip for the Freedom Arms. No non-factory parts and no non-factory grips were allowed on Production guns, so custom grips were not an option. That, and the huge acceptance by IHMSA silhouetters of Pachmayr grips on revolvers and the T/C Contender made the choice a natural. Two other respected silhouetters put the paw on Wayne Baker as well, Allen Kirchner of South Carolina and John Taffin of Idaho. It is my understanding that the first two Freedom Arms configured for steel were a .454 Casull sent to Taffin and a .44 Mag sent to me. Both had 10-inch barrels, the premium finish, rosewood & Pachmayr grips, and Bo-Mar sight set in a base milled from stainless steel.
The
Model 83 Silhouette was released with bead-blasted finish, Pachmayr grips, and a very good sight made by IHMSA All-Americans Jerry and Jo Barlett, called the
ISGW----Iron Sight Gun Works. Bob Baker would soon offer a globe front sight to shield the blade from glare and damage. The
Premier Grade did not exist as such until there was a
Field Grade, at which time the frames were so marked. The Model 83’s sent to Taffin and me did not bear the grade etching. These guns also predate the
spanner (screw-in) firing pin bushing.
While a Premier Grade certainly is more attractive that the bead-blasted Field Grade, the Field Grade enabled many a revolver shooter to take advantage of Dick Casull’s creation. When you step to the line with a Field Grade, you step to the line with a great piece of equipment, and the championship you’re gunning for won’t know whether the revolver is bead blasted or brushed. To the best of my knowledge, quality at
Freedom Arms has never wavered.
David Bradshaw
