NORWAY – Woodman’s Sporting Goods owner Paul Brook said he felt good about buying a Colt Python .357 magnum pistol about a week ago.

As an avid hunter and dealer of guns and ammunition, he is knowledgeable about firearms.

Plus, the seller told him that it originally belonged to Heman Woodman, the namesake and previous owner of the store for about 30 years.

This, he said, made the gun a little more special.

Some of the markings on the case were similar to those etched on wood workings in the store and two people, whom he respected, vouched for the seller.

But, he had nothing official to prove ownership.

Or so he thought.

On Nov. 15 a representative from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms called Brook. She wanted him to look up the sales record of a gun sold in about 1970.

“I told her I didn’t know if I could find it,” Brook said. “She said it was important and there was pressure from one of her superiors.

“They never give a reason why they want the information,” he said. “They just want the information.”

He explained that the store went from the founders, the Stone family, to Woodman, to Lloyd Mason, Gene Record, Bob Holden, Bruce Sweatt and finally Brook.

A lot of hands, a lot of records, a lot of different filing “systems.”

“I went to the basement and started rummaging through the stuff,” Brook said.

Then he found two manila envelopes. “Lloyd Mason’s Gun Records 1968 thru 1975” was written on one of the envelopes. The other said “Lloyd Mason’s Gun Records 1970.”

Brook looked in Mason’s book of 1970 sales, cross referenced to the stack of papers in the other envelope, which were in chronological order.

Within 15 minutes he found a record of the gun sale the ATF was interested in.

Also, right next to information on that sale, was information on the Colt .357 he had wondered about.

“It was amazing,” Brook said.

Woodman purchased the Colt .357 in 1961 from the manufacturer. Mason purchased it from Woodman in July of 1971 and sold it one month later.

Brook said he knew it was an older gun because the serial number was in the 9000s.

Brook had called Frank Voght, a former employee of Woodman, to ask him about the Colt.

“He told me Woodman was an avid collector of rifles and shotguns, but always said he only had one good handgun,” Brook said.

And now, 32 years later that “one good handgun” returned to the store where it was first purchased.

jsmedley@sunjournal.com

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