# Squires-Bingham Model 16



## Smoot (Sep 30, 2015)

A while back a relative of mine who's not a gun guy told me he had an 'assault rifle' that used to be his dads'. He said he had never liked having it in the house but didn't like the idea of selling it to a stranger or gun shop, something about not wanting it to end up in bad hands... He asked if I wanted this 'assault rifle' and I said sure. 

He came over with it wrapped up in towels, apparently that's how he'd been storing it at home, under a bed. And to think he was worried about who might get a hold of it from an FFL... HA! Well he unrolled the towels and a Squires-Bingham model 16, chambered in .22 LR was staring back at me. I'd actually never heard of one of these before, but this was no AR. It was in really poor shape and I decided to practice doing a little restoration on it. The stock comes painted a gloss black, but underneath it's actually a good-looking phillipine mahogany. I stripped the paint and refinished the wood. I used a small amount of walnut stain seeing as how the phillipine variety is somewhat lighter colored than standard mahogany. It turned out near indiscernible from the real stuff. The barreled action got bead-blasted and re-blued. The rifle has a sort of false lower, trying to mimic the look of an AR. It's made of aluminum, so I decided to anodize it black since bluing wasn't possible. Well, not surprisingly, this Filipino-made poor man's M16 was shoddily slapped together. The lower action block was made of very smutty aluminum, which caused the anodizing bath to eat a couple of noticeable gouges into it and also kept the anodizing dye from penetrating evenly. I ended up with a splotchy grayish finish. The anodizing did provide a good hardened outer layer however, and it seemed to have created good pores as well. So I decided to just paint it black... Didn't want to invest much in a rifle like this. After everything was all dry, I buttoned her all back up. It turned out pretty decent for a hack like me.

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone here has ever seen one of these or knows anything about their possible value? I've shot it plenty since and it is mechanically sound and reasonably accurate. I know I've probably just polished a turd here, but I just wanted to know more about the gun.


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## Bax* (Dec 14, 2008)

Hmmm never heard of one of these before. I looked it up and looks like a cool little rifle.

To gauge value, try checking gunbroker.com to see if there are any others for sale. 

Keep in mind however, by doing the restoration work that you did, that could affect the value of the rifle adversely. As odd as it sounds, keeping it in its original condition would have likely retained more value even though its aesthetics were less than ideal.


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## Smoot (Sep 30, 2015)

Bax* said:


> Keep in mind however, by doing the restoration work that you did, that could affect the value of the rifle adversely. As odd as it sounds, keeping it in its original condition would have likely retained more value even though its aesthetics were less than ideal.


Yeah, I probably should've checked value before I did anything, but I felt kind of safe with this being Filipino made, not very old, and being what a gun collector might call field grade or a brown gun. It was so dirty it was honestly kind of gross. Not even just fouling or rust, Don't know what the nasty buildup on it was.

Value wasn't a big deal either, because I sort of implied to my relative that I wouldn't sell it. So now I just have one less spot in my safe, a few less bills in my wallet and a .22 that I doubt I'll shoot much in the future!


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## Bax* (Dec 14, 2008)

You know what they say about things made in the Philippines?

"That there was made in the Philippines."


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