260,
$600 for a Forbes, that was a deal!!! I traded into one for a friend at Scheels in 30-06 (1st year production w/o the fluffy flutes!) for ~$875 and thought that was a steal at the time.
I'll have to come out and visit Nebraska and go on the gunstore/pawnshop circuit with you and get a few tips!
I have paid anywhere from $375 to about $575 for NIB CLR's over the last 10 years since I sent my first one back to Melvin. I don't expect to find any more for the $375... those days are most likely gone. I did pick one up on GunBroker a few years ago for I think $875 that was advertised as being Jon Sundra's 30-06 that he received for a gun article introducing the Colts. It came with a copy of the magazine w/ pictures. Jon referenced the nice synthetic stock that the rifle came with which raised my hopes that the rifle indeed would be "special". Sure enough, it came with Melvin's ULA stock and is actually marked as such (Melvinized guns actually say "Colt Light Rifle" on the buttpad). It is also serial # 1011 IIRC with #1 being "1001" according to Melvin. It also has different tooling used for the lettering and numbering on the rifle. It did come with the typical CLR trigger which I may still change out though. Anyway, at $875, I thought it was unique and definitely a bargain given the stock. Melvin said these were actually pre-production rifles made for some of the gun writers. He said there were two or three prototypes but he still has all of those!
Kind of fun!
I bought the $600 Forbes at a well-known gun store in Maine that I happened to be visiting while on vacation. It was tagged at $1,000, but I asked the counter guy what their best price was and when he said $750, I told him that I'd put it back in the rack. So, he asked what I'd give and when I said $600, he said he'd take it.
I remember when CDNN was closing out the CLR with a scope for $399, but I didn't feel drawn to them until I traded into one and liked it enough to buy a few more. I've never had one in 300 WIN MAG, haven't shot the 7mm REM MAG much, but like both the 270s and 30-06s enough to recommend them to others. If I was in the market for a 270 or 3006 on a $500 budget, I think that a good used CLR is a better value than a new Remington 700 SPS or other similar rifles..
