[John Knobelsdorf II]

Thank yous.

First let me thank the good folks that got this organization and website up and running. My next thank you is to all that contribute so much valuable information. The posted pictures, those alone, are worth the time to come visit this site.

My Introduction - Peter Johnson’s book.

During my growing up in Houston, Texas – my dad saw me reading a lot of books and magazines about hunting and firearms in general. I don’t know why, but he gave me a copy of Peter Johnson’s book. I had never seen a Parker shotgun, and think that my dad had never seen or handled one in person himself. The gift was one of the later printings of Johnson's by Stackpole, so the pictures are not crisp. Johnson’s enthusiasm and descriptions, as well as the grainy pictures, got my attention.

Growing up, it was easy to see examples of L.C. Smith shotguns. I knew families that had them. They appeared somewhat regularly on tables at the gun collectors association shows.

First to Hold.

It was a few years after reading Johnson’s book that we got the call to come over to visit the father of one of my uncles. He was a lawyer and as part of administering an estate he had the firearms to dispose of. One of the firearms in the inventory was a GH. We’ll wanted to see this.

Bless his heart, the deceased individual had quite a fine evaluation of his prized Parker shotgun. His instructions had been that upon his passing, this was to be traded for two brand-new Pigeon grade Browning Superposed shotguns to go to his grandsons.

The remarkable thing about this GH gun was just how incredibly and superbly balanced it was. It came to the shoulder with crisp and solid authority.

We passed on the opportunity to buy one that for the price of the two new Pigeon grade Browning’s. But now I knew what I wanted. I already had the Field Grade L.C. Smith and shot that all the way through college.

First to Shoot.

My dad came through for me with a college graduation present, a DHE that he got from Herman Gilbreath.

First one I got for myself was so I would have a more general field shooter. This is a VHE that was on Herschel Chadick’s table at a show in Austin. Paid for that one with the money from a part-time job. In the late 70's Herschel was the first person I knew to even own, much less trade in the hammer guns. They were beautiful and admirable, but I wanted to hunt!

Thus, my interest and pleasure with these guns was begun.