Charlie Johns squinted over the top of his glasses at the 8x10 black-and-white photo and finally shook his head. "Not really too good," Charlie said. "I believe I can help you some."

The image was that of a pistol. I'd taken the picture, and Charlie was right–it wasn't too good. It was the early 1990s, and I'd been submitting a few articles here and there and my photography was wretched. I'd taken a roll of 35mm film on my old Pentax, and Charlie had developed them for me. After seeing them, Charlie agreed I needed assistance–and he was just the right man for the job.

I'd met Charlie through policework. He was the official photographer for the Luna County Sheriff's Department at the time, working mostly with his good friend Detective Karl Bennett photographing crime scenes. The photography was exceptional and had helped Karl sway more than one jury in criminal cases. Luckily for me, Charlie was also a firearms enthusiast. And not just your everyday gun-gatherer; Charlie's knowledge of guns and their history was extensive.

A lifelong bachelor, Charlie had no children and few relatives. He had been a sniper in the Marine Corps in the 1950s, and after being discharged, he returned to his home state of Florida and became the postmaster in Cape Canaveral. After retiring in the mid-1980s, he moved to my hometown of Deming, New Mexico, where he went to work part-time for the sheriff's department.

Being semi-retired afforded Charlie the luxury of spending a great deal of time with his guns. He was always eager to assist me with gun photography and often provided specimens from his collection for photos. Charlie didn't let just anybody know about his stuff. He had to be at ease around folks before he'd even talk about his guns.

As he became more comfortable with me, he brought around better and better guns. One of my favorites was a Colt Single Action Army in .32-20. It was accompanied by a letter from the factory indicating it had been shipped to the Copper Queen Mining Company in Bisbee, Arizona, just after the turn of the century. A few years later, I was reassigned from my New Mexico post as a federal investigator to a new one in Texas. Unfortunately, I lost contact with Charlie.

When I was reassigned to New Mexico in 2004, I received sad news: Charlie had passed on. I'd looked forward to swapping a few gun tales with him upon my return, but it wasn't to be. I only hoped his collection hadn't fallen into the wrong hands. Thankfully, it hadn't.

Karl Bennett, our mutual friend, told me that Charlie had made Karl the new caretaker of the collection, bequeathing him everything.

Some months ago Karl invited me to his home to take a look at Charlie's guns. Though I'd seen a few of them here and there, I was stunned when I saw the entire collection. The Colts were superb, as were the pocket pistols. More spectacular was the compilation of German pistols. They included a fine Luger Navy, Luger Artillery, captured police models, a Black Widow and others, all in fantastic condition and many with original magazines and holsters. The Mauser Broomhandle looked like it had just come off the production line, with the bright blueing on the trigger, hammer and safety rivaling anything Colt ever produced. More remarkable was Charlie's extensive documentation of each gun, including magazine-quality 8x10 photos of each one, followed by detailed histories, to include any accounts provided to him by the seller, and exact dates, times and prices of the transactions. Many descriptions had been typed by Charlie on letterheads of the particular gunmakers. Letters, photos of the original owners--anything possible to archive the history of each piece.

I had never known the true extent of Charlie's assemblage or the research, dedication and care he'd put into it. He was a true aficionado in the craft of collecting and proved that we are only caretakers of such history.