As with Brother Craig, I've been an on-again/off-again contributor to the DGJ since about 2001 and have zero journalism skills; my only qualification is a passion for double guns. And unlike what seems to be the background with the majority of Double Gun Shop contributors I also have zero engineering, mechanical, technical, or actual gunsmithing background and experience; my contributions are limited solely to featuring unusual guns and any history my research uncovers. I often find the history and events with which they are associated more interesting than the guns themselves. I don't write for monetary gain and whatever I receive is a pittance compared the time I have invested in a piece. In fact, based solely on my experience, gun writers are surely starving! My writing motivation is that I believe the information I share is important to the collecting fraternity, and because much of the information I've gathered over the years, if not published, will be lost when it comes my time to croak.
As for me personally, I sincerely appreciate what Dan and Joanna Cote' have done in providing the double gun community their beautiful magazine; which for the most part has been reserved solely as a venue for collectors to share their guns and experiences as amateur writers. As far as I know today, they still put this thing together on their kitchen table and run the entire operation from their home. Both Dan and Joanna are in their mid-70's now so I've often wondered how, or if the DGJ will continue when the time comes they either retire or are unable to continue? It's difficult to believe that this publication has been around since 1989; and although I'm now old and jaded and no longer get excited at finding that distinctive brown cardboard wrapper in my mailbox, I'll always remember my level of excitement from those early days. And although no one enjoyed Sherman's "Finding Our for Myself" series more than me, what excited me even more were the photos of the amazing guns featured in those early issues; the Uncle Dan Grade D.M. Lefever guns, the Dodge Brothers Deluxe Smiths, Tom Kidd's high grade Fox guns, etc.; guns I never knew, or even imagined existed. And I also always enjoyed Mr. Headrick's photos. It's photos, much more so than content, that sell magazines; and I agree that the photo quality we see now in the DGJ is not what it should be. Why is that so? I don't know, but I too have registered my complaints. For the record, Terry Allen has always done the photos for my articles. When we first collaborated Terry was using an analog camera and photo sessions were an all day affair. We'd set up a shot and he's take countless polaroid pictures until all glare had been eliminated; then he' take the analog picture for the magazine. Those photos included in the first pieces were outstanding; the Linneman Optimus Lefever, the L.C. Smith dead pigeon gun, the Charles Jarred Deluxe, etc. All were amazing in color and detail, and elicited the most comments I've ever received. Mr. Hedrick himself was also impressed and called one evening to compliment Terry's work. Terry now has all the latest digital camera equipment; and even though the proofs he sends are amazing in detail, that quality seems to never come thru in the published photos as many are a bit fuzzy and all seem to be a bit on the dark side and lackluster. Perhaps the best thing to come from those early efforts with Terry is that those photos exposed Terry's talents and catapulted him to international prominence as a firearms photographer. As a result been all over the world photographing gun collections, shooting events, and safaris. And for anyone who may care, I've got a few more pieces in the DGJ hopper; the next piece about an LC Smith Deluxe Grade live bird gun. This Deluxe was involved in an insurance fraud scheme; and the story revolves around how the fraud was uncovered, and the gun recovered decades later.
