Dean the two rear beads on the "Gold Hearts" gun are gold and enormous. When shouldered, a pigeon at 26 yards will just fit in between the rear beads. Like any woman, Annie Oakley liked to have her "stuff", including her pigeons, just so. I have not shot the gun with the original 30" barrels because I haven't measured the wall thickness. I have shot the 34" Parker Special Steel barrels plenty. The gold plated Parker trigger doubles occasionally so the old girl has to come apart I guess. I have not experimented to see whether the doubling would stop if I shot heavier loads or switched the selector to "left barrel first". The refinishing consisted of the buttplate and both sets of barrels, that's it. Ken Hurst spent many hours on the buttplate, which was a rusty, pitted, throwaway until he agreed to perform his magic with the file and gravers. Bill Hambridge finished the buttplate and screws just before his disappearance. Timing is everything. The buttplate is a museum piece although Ken somehow refused to specify payment, mentioning our friendship as compensation. Oh well. Dewey Vicknair finished the 30" Damascus barrels just before he quit doing Damascus refinishing as a "price list" item. Again, timing is everything. He managed to nicely redo the Damascus barrels in black and white without removing or disturbing the gold balls. Dewey also did the 34" steel barrels, and quite a job it is, considering what he had to work with. I don't think the gun had always been stored indoors, although the wood and the steel barrels seemed to suffer very little neglect compared to other parts. Even though the entire project was the result of the work of several talented artists, I would not own the gun except for the generousity of PGCA member Daryl Middlebrook, who arranged the exchange of ownership.
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