About 20 years ago I used to shoot a 1820's vintage English 11 ga. single shot, half-stock flintlock fowler in competition, a lot, maybe a thousand rounds over a few years(?). I won quite a few matches and some awards with it, truly a wonderful gun that taught me much about building guns for style and building guns to shoot. I paid $1000 for it in 1979, selling or traded many guns to acquire it. One day I had the lock out for meticulous cleaning and while looking at the temper blued mainspring, I imagined it breaking. I reassembled the gun and sold it to a collector friend. Today it remains in the same condition as when he bought it.
Several years ago, one of my very best clients brought a pair of light white cotton gloves (not shooting gloves) to the Guild Show, his Gun Room gloves. I laughed when I saw a hole worn in the trigger finger. He has several custom guns I know he has never shot, some with elaborate engraving, some rather plainly adorned. I've also bird hunted with him in North Dakota, Idaho and Texas where he shot a lot of birds with three different custom shotguns I built for him.
The hole in the trigger finger shows how much he enjoys them all. He has great judgement on both sides of the coin, which he can also afford.
I remember Terry sticking his neck out to purchase a high-grade Lefever that most (including myself) thought thoroughly un-restorable. He had a great cosmetic restoration performed, (beyond all our expectations!) and then mentioned sending it to Teague's for damascus sleeving. Not because he wanted to shoot it but so it could be shot! (Please correct me Terry?!?) But Terry is a remarkable man in many ways.
(P.S. Steve, I'm looking forward to meeting you at the show. Would you please learn how to crop and resize photos?.)
