VHE Restoration
 

Brad Bachelder is in the process of restoring an estate VHE that I picked up a few years back. Shot it for about a year but came to the conclusion that I would shoot it much better if I had a stock that was better fitted to my dimensions. Went to Covey and Nye and Lars fitted me out fine. I will retain all the original wood on this gun as there's nothing wrong with it except the dimensions. This VHE came out of the estate of the late Henry F. Tenney, a noted lawyer from Illinois, close personal friend of Adlai Stevenson and one time candidate for Governor of Illinois. It was Henry's wife's Parker that she shot skeet with. Original stock had been cut short to fit his wife. Too short with too much drop for me.

Pictures are of the old stock on the VHE and the replacement walnut blank that I purchased from Cecil Fredi in Los Vegas from a selection of a half dozen blanks. Brad is also re-case coloring. Barrels require no restoration. I am looking forward to seeing the results of Brad's work and shooting this VHE with greater confidence. It will go well with the English setter pup that's coming this Spring. I can't wait for both to arrive!

Good luck with your project. Looks very promising with that beautiful wood

I have bought a lot of blanks from Cecil and never been disappointed. A worthy project indeed.

Thanks Rich. Cecil was most helpful and sent me pictures of a half dozen American Black Walnut Blanks to choose from. I shoot skeet weekends with a small group of gents and we hunt birds together also. I circulated the pictures of the blanks among these gents and asked for their selection of the blank they would go with. Turns out that all four of the gents selected the same blank I had chosen! And to tell the truth, the difference among all the blanks was very slight as they were all very nice. I also thought Cecil's prices were fair and reasonable.

I bought a blank from him for a restock of a Fox XE16. The smith had it headed up and shaped when he found a flaw he couldn't work around. I was sure I was out $600 for the blank but a call to Cecil got the reply "no problem send it back and I'll send you some more to choose from".

That's customer service. My smith is shaping a rifle stock from a very nice piece of English walnut from Cecil. A couple of months and it will be ready for the engraver.

Cecil was a pleasure to do business with and unlike some other business owners I've had to deal with, Cecil knows who the customer is and the value of customer service. Both Cecil and Brad Bachelder are tops in my book

Great wood