PGCA recognized

[Boxbirder]

The dealer at the Vintagers was New England Arms? out of NH?? I believe he went belly up a few years later. He treated me like a putz when I asked to look at a 21 32" duck Magnum. Then gave me a line like do you know what the costs is on it. Today none of it really matters to me.

The thing I think about more is old Bill, he set me up with quite a few guns over the years. So much that he would give me a call and the deal was already in motion. One of the coolest guns he found for me was a Greener Pigeon gun in Australia, he called and then emailed I had just hooked up the first Blackberry that was offered to the public. Bill's email was the first I ever got on a handheld. I called that gunshop "McDonalds" i believe there out of business, gave them a CC and had to wait about 6 months to get that gun in. Bill turned me onto several Linder's also. But the thing we always spoke about was surfing, shaping boards and his idol the Duke. Yes that was the year Ben won the Hammer gun, Andy Duffy was the SxS winner with the Galazan RBL.

Ben and I still cross paths at some of the pigeon shoots here and there. We mostly talk about the wise old owl, Bill was one of a kind and this post makes me think of him. It also makes me think when I complain about things in life I should reflect on Bill a little more. I'll raise that bottle of Mountain Dew for DA MAN.

[Bill Murphy]

I don't see Ben very often, but my wife and I try to look in on him every year at the Vintagers. I don't think Ben has shot at our pigeon club, but he is welcome as my guest any time he would like. By the way, I also have a Greener. Graham Greener, in discussing my Greener with me a few years back, told me that he knew of another one like mine, an unengraved Royal and it belonged to another Yank named Ben Wise. He was surprised when I told him that I knew Ben, was familiar with his gun, and live right down the road from him. Small world.