My wife was cleaning around on her Dad's house this weekend up in Missouri and ran across an interesting box under the bed in the spare bedroom. She came walking into the living room with the box and ask me what kind of gun was in the box. It was a .50 cal TC New Englander, still in the original box. Contents of the box werethe owners manual, a box of Hornady buffalo bullets,some speed loaders (that still had loads in them), a broken short starter,a broken ram rod, a handwritten bill of sale dated Dec 21, 1994 (from a yard sale),and some targets. The original price tag from a Gipson's store (anybody remember those stores?) was still stuck on the outside of the box. It originally sold for$249.95. My father-in-law said his son bought the gun at a yard sale in Maryland about 10 or 12 years ago and put it under the bed and it hasn't been touched since. He told me to take it home and I gladly accepted. That's the good news.

The bad news; it was never cleaned. I could see immediately that the gun was shot probably only 3 times. There were 5 bullets missing from the box.Two bullets were still in the speed loaders, so I figure the 3 that were unaccounted for were shot.The barrel was pitted with rust (but not real bad). The hammer was covered with rust. The nipple was completely covered in rust and clogged up, and the inside of the bore was completely covered too. To top it all off, the ramrod is broken off inside the barrel. Despite all the rust, the trigger is like new. It's really smooth. I still can't believe it. The stock is beautiful too. It's a great piece of walnut with lots of grain and a really nice satin finish. But...What the hell do I do about the ramrod?

Any comments in general about a TC New Englander 50 cal???