A Little Bit About Us

The Texas Gun Collectors Association (TGCA), is one of the oldest arms collecting clubs in the country, and whose members' interests mostly revolve around antique and historic firearms from a bygone era and also collectible classic firearms from more modern times.

The association was founded in February 1950 with a group of 27 avid gun collectors, comprising 26 Texans and one Oklahoman meeting at the Roosevelt Hotel in Waco Texas. In August 1950, the association was incorporated in the state of Texas as a non-profit fraternal and social organization.

Organized to bring together those students and serious minded collectors of the arms of yesteryear that were used as tools in the molding of this great country, TGCA has been successful in reaching this goal on a world-wide basis. Today, TGCA has members in almost every State of the Union, and in The United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Switzerland and Mexico.

The Texas Gun Collectors Association naturally reveres and supports the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America (the Bill of Rights), and is has been a National Rifle Association (NRA) affiliated club for many years. NRA makes frequent visits to our Annual Collector Arms Shows held in October each year, usually represented by its National Firearms Museum.

The spirit of Texas may be seen in the bronze sculpture, "Stampede" by Covelle, Texas, pictured left, and one may feel the raw emotions of the cowboys experiencing the potentially disastrous stampedes occurring on those cattle drives of a hundred years and more ago from Texas to Kansas. And from which one may sense the freedom of the wide open Wild West of an age of legend now swiftly passing into America's history and mythology.

The guns and other tools of thecowboy’s trade form the basis of many a TGCA member's collection, as do the weapons and memorabilia of the American Civil War, and other major events in American, and even world, history. Other members may base their collections on the guns of a particular gun maker - Colt, Remington, Smith & Wesson, Winchester, or one of myriad other makers. Others will collect variations of just one type of gun such as Colt single actions, derringers or Winchester .22 rifles. The list is endless.

Interested non-members are invited to apply for membership, and an application form can be copied from either of our two websites ~
www.tgca.net or http://www.texasguncollectorsshow.com.

Our magazine The Texas Gun Collector is published twice each year, once in mid-March,and once in mid-September. The magazine format was adopted very early on in The Collector's history - indeed it has always been referred to as a magazine even when it was little more than a monthly newsletter. The purpose of the publication is to record association events, including regular meetings and shows,disseminate news and information regarding the association, to provide interesting and informative articles of an historical and educational nature to the membership, as well as to provide a forum for the exchange of opinions and knowledge among members. The magazine is the one benefit of membership that all members in good standing can enjoy.

The magazine has always been produced by volunteers drawn from the membership of TGCA. Today, professionals have been hired to provide graphics, layout and typesetting services, and of course, we pay to have the magazine printed, bound and distributed. But the work of soliciting editorial copy (articles and stories), soliciting advertising, editorial comment, etc., proof-reading, invoicing and collections is all carried out by members in their spare time for no payment. The result may be described as quite remarkable, and we believe that the articles published in The Collector accurately reflect the nature and field of interest of the members of the Association.

All articles appearing in the magazine were written by TGCA members or friends of TGCA. Each article published, unless otherwise noted, was written especially for publication within The Collector's pages, and many articles from the pages of The Collector have been reprinted in the journals of other collector clubs.

A separate index of the contents of the magazine from its inception in August 1950 through 2002 has been available for several years, and this index will includes the keystone article from the Golden Anniversary edition (Fall 2000) by TGCA director and now magazine editor, Dr. Wes Tunnell.

The goal of the TGCA has not changed over the years, aiming as it does to provide a congenial association for those collectors engaged in the study of historical, antique, and classic firearms and edged weapons of the years from early history through WW II, and who wish to share their experiences and knowledge with others, especially the newcomer and the young.

An image from our Spring Meeting and Show at the
Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, Canyon, Texas