This weekend, GunBroker.com will begin an estate auction that has special meaning for each of us at The Outdoor Wire Digital Network. Last year, we unexpectedly lost our longtime contributor, training expert and pal, Tiger McKee. It was a terrific personal and professional loss.
We considered him both a trainer par excellence and a great friend. So, too, did many of our readers.
Over the past few months, a select few have been fortunate enough to acquire pieces of Tiger’s personal firearms collection. I have the last of his customized Choppers. It occupies a place of honor in my gun safe. I doubt it will ever be used the way Tiger intended, because he didn’t build custom guns to become “safe queens” -he made them better to be subjected to hard use.
As I have said before, he was a hot rod builder before he started gunsmithing - and the hot rodder is obvious in his work. TIger’s guns were designed to be run hard, shot fast and to be accurate in a “situation.”
The auction is being handled by Dwight VanBrunt of Sportsman’s Legacy and will include eighteen of the guns used by Tiger himself. They’ll include three matched pairs, prototype “Choppers” “Full Choppers” pre-ban Colt AR-15 rifles and several family heirloom guns. Most of them are customized, many include Tiger’s hand-written build sheets- works of art in themselves. The auction will also include his named guns -including “Betty” the 1973 Colt AR-15 passed down from Tiger’s father, and “Cindy” a 1984 Colt AR-15 that was Tiger’s first AR.
Each lot will also include a letter of provenance from his estate, signed by Tiger’s wife, Gretchen. If you’re a fan of Tiger’s writing over the years in the wires, were fortunate enough to have had his instruction, or simply enjoyed his Book of Two Guns, this is an opportunity to have a gun (or two) that were each Tiger tested and approved.
—Jim Shepherd