The connection is that Colonel Sheldon and Paul Curtis were friends and shooting buddies and, according to the letter, Curtis received the rifle from Owen for Sheldon. Crossman, Curtis, and Sheldon were members of a shooting expert mafia of the time, some whom were in the military, some were civilians. Most of them wrote for the outdoor and shooting press. The three named were very savvy about what guns to buy, unlike some others who wrote about guns but didn't seem to pay attention to their own collections.