SH members should come together, pitch in a little dough and buy Rstrick's buddy his duty rifle as a token of gratitude for his service. He's the one that put her through the gauntlet and the one who she should grow old with.
This has been discussed on the CMP Forum and guys started giving serial numbers of the fighter jets they had flown, tanks they had commanded, 5 inch guns they had captained and wondered "What about me?"
This price has been stuck at $15,500 for a bit. Ill be surprised if this doesnt go for something in the $30K range. The serious collector money is waiting till the last hour or so of the auction. They wont waste their time at this stage.
Kind of odd that one of the real reasons a collector might want this is so they can pull it out of the box and tell their buddies "Yep, this gun has bodies on it".
Wouldnt they get a bigger hard on giving a combat vet that money and he could come and talk about his experiences. If that happened I think instead of getting the erection ownership of this rifle will provide they will end up vomiting and wetting their pants.