I started out shooting a double, an old poor fitting tightly choked 12 bore Ithaca Flues the old man gave me for my 12th birthday. Still have it. I shot that gun all through high school and like many others, drifted away from shooting while in college. Once I moved to Colorado and began shooting again I picked up Mac's book AH Fox shotguns. Soon after followed a first year 12 bore A grade Fox(wish I still had that one). The Fox, my first bird dog Maggie and I spent a lot of time out chasing wild roosters and I learned quite a bit about what worked for me. I dabbled in some other American guns, mostly small bores but found 12 bores best suited to my tastes and physical size. I soon began to get interested in very early hammerless guns of English origin. This was a costly and life changing event to say the least. I soon owned a small stable of guns with unique patents that had a knack of spending more time off at the gunsmiths than out in the field. Some major life changes occurred around this time in my life , and I found myself looking for a new career. Gunsmithing school followed and a new path was forged. A few years after setting out on my own as a smith I began to look at my collection. A really good fitting fairly modern(1930's) Birmingham BLNE seemed to be the only gun I reached for and I had many neat old guns that just did not get out much. I decided on setting my sights on a really good gun and finding a new home for most of my collection. I'm down to 2 shotguns currently, my main gun for most things is a 12 bore H&H royal self-opener with my back up being an E.C. Ogden Birmingham SLNE. I'm currently building myself a custom shotgun on a Westley Richards barreled action that was purchased from a UK gun auction. It should be a fun build.
Steve
