doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com When all is said and done, you coulda had a Boss!

'Twas an old nut tree j0e!
...but a Boss would look nice indeed.

Ahh LG
Yeah Man, there's been a few stinkers that lost me a couple of beans, but not much, and without a doubt a serious SLE plays in a part in my dreamscape...but us tinker tribesmen really enjoy a gun in bits, eviscerated on the bench, undergoing some type of monkeying....and that's no place for one of the Best, eh? (Imagine the Beesley on a basement workbench!)

I wouldn't sell my small accumulation of shottys for the down payment on a Boss, I have too much fun with them. In order to fund a fine gun I do play the lottery and abandoned engineering for sales (the two-pronged approach: hope and pray).

Yeti, did you mean hope and pray or hope and prey?

I had the chance to hold and shoot a H & H Royal, I was surprised at how nice it was and I finally understood what the fuss was about. It would be nice to have but I'll keep my stable of ordinary horses, a couple of hours with them makes me forget about the polo ponies. Nevertheless, I'm glad they make Royals (etc.) and there are patrons to buy 'em, they are beautiful.

I'm a guy who finds 10 large to be about the upper limit for a good gun, not even a good down payment on a respectable "best" as it were. And, after weekends like the past, where I took several falls in flooded timber that had come back with a vengence of grass that gave the pheasants someplace to be after the corn was gone, I wondered about owning a best while I flicked the mud out of the checkering, after one of the dogs shook it off himself to put it there. The Tobin 16 gave three birds with three rounds, my hunting companions now call it "Thor's Hammer". Being in the right place at the right time plays a huge part in a day like that, but, I forgot to mention that to them at the time.

What is to be gained? All of my ragtag collection of guns sold today could only at the very most realize a similar ragtag collection in replacement, sans the faded, but golden memories. My first repeater was a Remington 17, that I got on September 17th, 1977, which was also Roxanne's 17th birthday. It was a time I will never forget. After I ran a five+five with that little gun (five grouse, five woodcock, five rounds of ammunition for each species limit) no-one could have told me there was something better. Roxanne, all legs, blond treses, green eyes and a perfect smile is long gone, but the gun sure isn't. Hard to believe, but there was something better than her down the line, too.

Were I ever invited to a proper driven shoot, I'm sure the Tobin (or Darne, but, international incidents aren't my style) would get some strange looks, no ejectors and no matched mate, but I've no doubt the Yank and his quaint trinket would be permitted. I'd leave the pumps at home so as not to give my hosts indigestion, but remember quietly to myself that it was 50 aging American lend lease destroyers that likely made England as we know it today, a possibility. Best is as best does, and fawning over hunting implementaria in a gun room full of cigar smoke has never been my bag. Good enough will have to do.
Best,
Ted

I have a hard time picturing myself hopping over and slipping off shale rock on a 45degree pitch chasing chukar with a Boss. I've decided to buy guns for use not simply to own.

You are all right!

Lowell's logic was what I applied when I bought my Purdey. I considered all the secomdhand cars I had paid £5000 for, which were now scrap, and decided that investing a little over that in a Purdey would be an investment in something I could shoot with all my life.

That old Purdey is still going strong and is a joy to shoot. And I do use it for all kinds of shooting - it was made to get wet and occasionally muddy - all cleans off easily enough with no ill effects.

However, owning a 'best' gun does not stop me from acquiring and enjoying more. My current favourite is my £50 Thompson hammer gun - now I have re-finished the stock all that remains is browning the barrels - but that will have to wait 'til the end of the season as I'm too busy shooting pheasants with it.

My cabinet currently holds over 20 guns and I expect it will continue to have more added - and some will move on.

Funny, my latest renovation is a Browning Double Two - cost me £40 and killed mallard on Sunday evening. My first outing with it. First shot - fist duck! Has to be agood sign. They all have something to offer.

Reading this thread got me thinking of something that Grandpaw has been telling me since I got old enough to hold a shotgun: "You don't need another gun!!!" What he meant was: "The way of a real hunter is to get himself a good gun, and own and shoot just that one gun, and no other, so that you get used to it like it's your wife, stick to it, and never trade it until it starts to fall apart with wear".

I've always politely ageed with that notion, but mentally cast it away as old-fashioned poor man's attitude. But now ... you've got me thinking, maybe these oldtimers actually got it right? Maybe I should stick to what I've got already, and put away the money that I would have otherwise spent on guns, so that one gay I would finally get to own just one good gun (anything that comes from London of the late Victorian will be fine, thank you)?

Over all these years, I used trade plus cash to move up the better gun ladder. I have no idea of where the time went, where the old guns/rifles went, nor my hard earned money went.
It would have been nice to see all of the above in a Boss&Co gun sitting in my cabinet. Altho, its been a nice trip.
So, the way things have been played, I'll keep the Beesley, Kimber 22, look and trade for a proper fowler - the Boss will have to wait.

Maybe Santa will bring you a better scope for Christmas.