One owner Parker

[Bill Murphy]

I've really never thought about how long my Granddad shot his old E Grade Lefever pigeon gun compared to how long I've been shooting it. He shot it from 1887 to 1929, 42 years. My uncle sent me the gun in 1957 when I was twelve years old. I have been shooting the gun for 54 years, twelve years longer than Granddad shot it. When I got the gun in 1957, my Dad was all atwitter about the "soft barrels", and told me I couldn't shoot factory shells in it. He had a friend on Staten Island, Bill Lea, who was a prolific antique gun collector. Bill sent me a set of BGI loading equipment, a roll crimper, an adjustable measure, and a decapping block, all of which I still have. I didn't know where to buy wads, so I used newspaper for wads and loaded shells for the Lefever which I shot on the skeet range like it was a normal thing to do. It wasn't long before the skeet committee at the club put me to work loading shells for the club and I found out about real card wads and fiber fillers. Bill Lea also sent me a very nice Francotte Grade 14 ejector gun with a blown right barrel and asked me if I could do anything with it. I knew Lefever would sleeve it for about $125, but I didn't think I would come out on top with a deal like that. I didn't have the nerve to ask for how much he would sell the gun to me. Foolishly, I sent the gun back to Mr. Lea with thanks. That was a bad decision. I think he meant to give me the gun, but I didn't know that at the time. My Dad's work place was full of gun people, at least I thought so. When I was eleven or twelve years old and on a trip to New York, Mr. Lea invited us to his home on the very end of the island and showed us guns for an afternoon. One that was most impressive was a Winchester Model 86 Deluxe in 50-110. He was nobody's shotgun guy. However, one of my Dad's work friends owned a Novotny A-1 Special. We exchanged letters about the gun but I never saw the gun or pictures of the gun. Fifty years later, through my "shooter research", I found that my Dad's friend and Mr. Novotny had shot together in Minnesota. Just about the time Ron Kirby was getting seriously into "Novotny Research", he left PGCA.