Who likes Surprises

[Reelman2]

I just received my latest auction find in the mail today. When I unboxed it I found a beautiful Horton-Meek #2 tiny Tournament reel. It measures 1-3/4" across and the pillars are 1/1/4". It has a tournament counter balanced handle and jeweled end caps. That description is just how it was advertised. When I took it out of the box and tried to crank the handle it turned rather hard. It was dry as a bone. So I took off the end caps and began to oil it a bit and that made it better. I then took the handle off and put some oil in around the pinion gear and that made it better but still didn't spin like a top. I thought it must be really dry or gunked up inside so I decided to take it apart. When I got the front cover off of the reel what a surprise I got. It was also a freespool model. Caching. The reel is not marked as a freespool but What a Surprise. Don't you just love it when you get an unexpected bonus

[40fordflathead]

Sounds great! Any pictures to share?
Bruce

[RonG]

That's a great reel.

[Bill Muth]

Horton Meek No. 2 free spool reels are pretty rare. They are never marked "Free Spool," so the only way to tell is to handle the reel in person. I would be curious to know what the serial number is on your reel. I have a few of these in my collection, and the serial numbers are all bunched pretty tightly into two ranges. Nice find!

[Reelman2]

I am having trouble posting pics. It keeps saying file is too large. I have tried making the pics smaller but it doesn't seem to help. One pic is 5.23 MB. How do I make it less than 3 MB. The serial # is 11308.

[john elder]

Sometimes mailing them to yourself will make them smaller. You can also open them in Preview and use the tool bar to reduce their size. Most phones will also have an edit feature that allows you to reduce pic size as well as remove feet, cats, and other distractions around the edges that will reduce pic size

[40fordflathead]

The only way I can make it work is to email them to my self and then save to my pictures as John mentioned.
Bruce

[Reelman2]

Finally figured out how to make them smaller but lost the image of the back plate.
I think I forgot to mention the name engraved on the back of the reel. Theo

[kyreels]

I have it on the list to update the board with an automatic photo resizer, but it is tougher than I thought. Anyone that is a frequent poster of photographs needs to learn how to use their photo editor or resizer. If you have a Mac, it is easy using the photo app. If you have Windows 10, you can use the built in editor Photos, or even better download the special resizer app from the Microsoft store and you can right-click and resize. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/resiz ... verviewtab

[Bill Muth]

Thanks for the pics, what a great little reel! The majority of my Meek No. 2 free spools have serial numbers in the low 11000s - 11130, 11169, 11465, and 11466, so yours fits right in that grouping. I have two outliers - 8412 and 9714. Not sure what to make of it, but given how few of these turn up, it's interesting how many fall into a relatively small range.

[40fordflathead]

Wow, thanks for the pictures.
Bruce