Years ago I had an Uncle who lived in Virginia and he had a daughter in Florida. So he made monthly trips to Florida. He also was a gun nut and as being retired from the railroad he dabbled in selling some guns. He would scour the Pawn Shops in central Florida and at the time I suppose all the retirees were selling guns that they no longer needed.
He would stop by my house in NC and when he would open his trunk there would be piles of guns inside. Winchesters, Smiths, Foxes just to name a few.
I bought a few guns as they were a deal. I bought a nice Model 12, 12 bore with a solid rib, a LC Smith just to mention.
But the one gun that got away was a nice Winchester Model 42 Skeet with a vent rib. He begged me to buy it at the time but I was hesitant as it had 3" chambers and not knowing better I assumed all skeet guns would be 2 1/2" chambers, hence it was a made up skeet 42.
I later learned that was not the case. The gun was like new and was priced to me (his nephew) at $800.
Now this was the late 80's of course.
Another gun was a nice 1903 Purdey that was re barreled by Purdey in the 50's . While laying up with a bad case of the flue and looking at the Purdey I decided to turn one gun in to two. As I was already interested in Spanish doubles I contacted a well known west coast dealer and made a deal to swap the Purdey for two new made for me Grulla Windsor's, a 12 and 20 bore. Need less to say I did not keep the very long.
