Baltimore Antique Arms Show

[Bill Murphy]

Are any PGCA members planning on attending the show this weekend? Kevin McCormack and I will be manning tables B-4 and B-5 as always. We haven't heard from any of the other regulars. Let us know whether you will be there.

[Robert Rambler]

Plan to walk the aisles on Sunday. :clap:

[Daryl Middlebrook]

hi





Hi Bill,
I will still be in Florida wishing that I was at the show.
Daryl

[Chuck Bishop]

Hope to be there Saturday afternoon. Bill, is the Metro parking lot still available?

[Bill Murphy]

Hi, Daryl, we'll miss you. Chuck, I still recommend that visitors park in the commuter lot on the other side of the tracks from the show venue and walk to the show from behind the building. Getting out of the fairgrounds parking lot at 5:00 on Saturday is a terrible experience.

[Dave Purnell]

Bill, as a recent resident of Maryland I plan to be there Saturday. I grew up in that vicinity, has it changed much since 1970?

Dave

[Bill Murphy]

No change at all. Well, I-83 is paved now, but the McDonalds is still on the corner of Timonium Road and York Road and the Loch Raven Skeet Club is still up the street on the reservoir. I have not been on your side of Fishing Bay for a while. My father in law spent a lot of time at a lodge on the top of Fishing Bay on the Transquaking. I have a friend who has a neglected RSA across the water from you in Wingate. I love that part of the country.

[Dave Purnell]

Thanks Bill,
This is a beautiful place. I'm still getting my bearings. I've been spoiled for many years by mild winters and early springs in the South. I'm told I'm the fifty-eighth resident on the island. I am amazed by the peaceful quiet and abundance of wildlife. See you Saturday.

Dave

[John Dallas]

Bill - I stayed at a friend's house on the South shore of Fishing Bay. His family had been watermen for generations. Had an unbeleivable duck shoot with his brother-in-law, Wally Abbott, the 12-time World Champion Muskrat skinner.

[Bill Murphy]

John, thanks for the report. I haven't seen muscrat meats for sale in country stores for a few years, but I'm sure they are sold among neighbors. The show is going well. I scored a DHE #1 frame stock with #0 size skeleton buttplate and trigger guard mounted and the matching forend. The rest of the gun was destroyed by rust and was not offered. The stock is wonderful and the trigger guard and buttplate need to be restored. Does anyone know whether the #1 frame stock can be reduced and installed on a #0 frame gun? I have a great #1 frame 16 with #0 frame stock from the factory, and it is a real wand. However, I have a #0 frame 28 that needs this stock. Can it be fitted? Our friend and member Jerry Smith is displaying many neat Parkers for sale that I have not seen offered before. I saw a DH 16 Damascus offered for sale at what I considered a reasonable price, but I know nothing about the barrel wall thickness. You're on your own. It is a really nice gun.

[Bill Murphy]

In attendance are PGCA types, Bill Murphy, Kevin McCormack, Art Wheaton, Allan Swanson, James Baker, Ken Waite, father and son, Jerry Smith, "The Parker Story" authors Bill Mullins and Charlie Price, book seller and PGCA guy Tommy Hypes, and I am told Parker Pages editor Austin Hogan is in town and will be with us tomorrow. I will have a whole new list for you tomorrow night. Maybe some more news about what is available for sale.

[Dean Romig]

Bill, the measurements I took from my 0-frame 16 ga. GHE and my 1-frame 12 ga. GH are really close and I have a 1 or 1 1/2-frame stock I hope to fit to the 0-frame gun. I bought a nice dremel and I'm working very carefully on the wood to bring it as close as I possibly can. I really haven't decided if I'll continue with this endeavor.

Are you staying in Baltimore or at home and commuting?

Bill, is that stock from the rusted out DHE recently turned up in coastal ME or NH ?

[Dave Purnell]

Bill, I have to change to Sunday for the show. The Island is having a Muskrat dinner Saturday afternoon at the church hall. I had thought it was next week, but was wrong, and I don't want to miss it. Wylie Abbott, Jr. and his wife Pam live just down the road. Pam is our rural letter carrier for the Post Office. Wylie, Jr fills in when Pam is sick. According to the book "Elliott's Island: The Land That Time Forgot", Wylie Abbott, Sr. set the world's record for Muskrat skinning in 1976 by skinning five Muskrats in one minute.

Dave

[Dean Romig]

. According to the book "Elliott's Island: The Land That Time Forgot", Wylie Abbott, Sr. set the world's record for Muskrat skinning in 1976 by skinning five Muskrats in one minute.

Dave

Shazaam!! Does that include putting them on the stretcher?

That requires some special tools but still, that's fast... damn fast! I used to skin one in under two minutes. Guess I'm not a contender :(

Hey Dave, see if you can get some muskrat recipes. I've eaten it and may again but it would be nice to know what other people do with muskrat.

[Dave Purnell]

Dean, I don't know what went into the record being set, just what I read, but it doesn't sound like an event one would like to witness from the front row. I hope to learn alot more about Muskrat tomorrow.

Dave

[Destry L. Hoffard]

Dave,

It's plenty good enough if you eat it fresh and hot, let go cold it's got a tallowish flavor that I don't care for.

Destry

[Dave Noreen]

Every time I had it on the Eastern Shore it was so buried in bar-b-que sauce it could have been anything. Didn't taste a bit different then goose legs in a crock pot with bar-b-que sauce.

[Bill Murphy]

Dean, you get around. What is the story on that gun and how did you find out about it without buying the parts?

[John Dallas]

Wylie used a common pocket knife, a Case or some other inexpensive knife . My friend, Wally's Bro-in-law tried to get the knife company interested in an endorsement deal , but they were't interested. There is a biography of Wally written by the same lady who wrote the history of Elliot's Island. Title is "Having My Say" A 15 year old girl competing for the "Miss Cambridge" or some such thing skinned muskrat as her talent. You can find it on youtube. Try Abbott, muskrat and Cambridge as a search

[George Lander]

WOW! You'se guys above the MD line will eat about anything. Why do they call a muskrat a muskRAT (the emphasis being on "RAT") Proper barbeque is Southern hog, chicken, quail & nothing else. Did you ever see the movie "Fried Green Tomatoes"?

Just My Humble Opinion......George

[tom leshinsky]

George, If you check, a muskrat is much cleaner than any chicken, hog or even quail. All they eat is roots and grass found around water. It's reallly good looking dark red meat with very little fat. And as Destry says eat it warm.
They may look like rats but are not the common house type.

[John Dallas]

For those of you whose delicate sensibilities are offended, you may use the term "Marsh Rabbit"

[Destry L. Hoffard]

George,

I've known a lot of folks to eat possum down in your neck of the woods. They must not know the rules of BBQ apparently. It ain't bad either, stuffed with sour kraut and sweet potatoes on the side......


Destry

[C Roger Giles]

I am picking up four muskrats this week that were traped out of the Ottawa Shooting Club tomarrow. Rats out of a marsh are much better than those out of of a ditch.

They will be stewed in cream corn ala mashed potatos and fresh french bread, yummy the hell with BBQ sauce.

BTW I par boil them for about two minutes that I have added two three spoons of baking soda to but watch out as they can boil all over the stove making a real mess. This par boil really cleans them off in a

Roger as in FG

[Glenn Fewless]

Gentlemens:

Welcome to the Mushrat Forum!

"....They may look like rats but are not the common house type. "

Everyone knows the best rats come from Norway. :rotf:


FWIW. the two extreme ends of the palatablity scale for wild creatures are ruffed grouse at the top and porcupine at the bottom. Both are unchallenged at their positions. I ain't never 'et no mushrat, but it will no doubt fit comfortably between these two.


Glenn

[Bill Murphy]

I will get Dave Purnell's report tomorrow at tables B-4 and B-5 at the Baltimore Show. Dean, how did you find out about the rusty DHE 16?

[Dave Suponski]

Well anyway whats going on at the show! Any great Parkers come out of the woodwork? Inquiring minds want to know....:rolleyes:

[Dean Romig]

Bill, sometimes word just seems to get around through the 'network' and in this case Robin happened to tell me he had seen it at the coastal gunsmith's shop who bought (?) the gun and determined it couldn't be saved and decided to part it out. I learned of it just a couple of days after I bought the stock and forend wood (from two different sources) for my project gun so I never even called the gentleman about the wood - knowing the metal parts were way beyond resurrection. Dean

[George Lander]

Destry: Marsh Williams used to say that when a possum fell into the mash the resulting semi-clear product had a distinctive taste all it's own. He set it aside for his Northern customers and named it (what else) "Ol Possum"

Best Regards, George

BTW: Carbine's gold jewelry a couple weeks ago & brought good prices

[Bob Brown]

Bill, I bought a 1 frame stock that I was hoping would fit on a 0 frame, either a 20 or 16 gauge. It wasn't close enough to even try it on those, but it did fit quite well on a 1 1/2 frame 12 that had a poor replacement stock. Good luck with it, I hope you have better luck with the 0 frame than I did.

[Bill Murphy]

Thanks for the information.

[Destry L. Hoffard]

Roger,

What day and time for dinner? Just let me know!

George,

Don't take it too hard, we eat possums even in the far northern reaches of Southern Illinois. Me and Droge had a nice young coon at Thanksgiving time just a couple years ago.


Destry

[George Lander]

Destry: Those are yankee possums. Their ancestors were displace during the War of Northern Aggression and don't carry the same flavor as their Souther kin. As for coon, I know of no one North or South who still eats coon, especially since Davy Crockett just passed away. I guess, some folks will eat anything if they're hungry enough.

Just My Humble Opinion.......George

[Destry L. Hoffard]

George,

I've eaten them both south of "The Line" and couldn't tell a bit of difference. My people were (and still are) just poor white trash and would eat about anything that kept body and soul together. I'm not decended from the Lees or Washingtons, just regular home folks.


DLH

[George Lander]

Destry: As it happens I am descended from the Lee's and the Washington's through the Randolph lineage. I have never eaten either possum or coon (that I know of) but when you go into some of the barbeque houses down South you never really know what you're eating. I just have gall bladder removal surgery so I may have to cut out the barbeque entirely! Sad, what else is there to live for?

Best Regards, George

[C Roger Giles]

George;

Prior to gall bladder removal I could not eat beans of any kind, after I was able to resume the bean diet but no uncooked onions to this day (9yrs hence). The gall bladder thing is a mystery.

Luckly it did not interfer with my taste for FG

Rog

[Richard Flanders]

Even I've eaten coon when I was growing up in Michigan, and it was a roadkill coon to boot.... still warm and I'm sure JUST done kicking when I found it. I mounted it using my Northwestern School of Taxidermy lessons and had it on the table as we had a stew of it that my grandmother made(that woman could cook anything and make it good). My sister was chowing down and asked what the stew was and I told her. She looked at me, looked at the coon down there snarling at her, then ran outside and threw up.... I'm still laughing 40+ yrs later.:rotf: True story... you can't, or at least don't have to make stuff like that up...

[Destry L. Hoffard]

Flanders,

George just obviously doesn't travel in the same circles of the South that I do.

I finally got around to mailing that comb raiser today.


DLH

[C Roger Giles]

Destry;

Was your comb riser made out of cardboard in the true and traditional "Ole Clunker" style?

Roger

[Destry L. Hoffard]

Nope, sorry to report it was leather, but I live in hope that you'll make me one of your famous waxed cardboard models.

What about that muskrat dinner dammit! When shall I arrive?


DLH

[Chuck Bishop]

So much for staying on the original :nono:topic!

[Destry L. Hoffard]

They started it!

[Chuck Bishop]

I think I've used that phrase a time or two in the past. Murphy, see what you started:rotf:

[Destry L. Hoffard]

I can't play anymore tonight boys, I've gotta head home and fry some pork chops.

DLH

[Dean Romig]

Richard, I took the Northwestern School of Taxidermy course by mail too - late fifties or very early sixties. I still have the catalogs and training stuff from Mr. Elwood.

[Glenn Fewless]

Dean:

I took the Northwest course! Pretty heady stuff for an early teen... I also bought the Touchstone course as well.

I wonder if there are internet taxidermy courses available now? <g>


Glenn

[George Lander]

Destry: I try not to travel in circles if I can help it.

Best Regards, George

[Richard Flanders]

I KNEW that there just had to be be some others here who took that taxidermy course as I did. Not that I got very far with it. I think I stuck the body into that coon backwards and didn't realize it for some time. I just never looked right... I did a hawk that committed suicide on our outside house wall also; that turned out better. Let's see; how to tie this thread all together.... I think that Dean and Bill Murphy were standing at a taxidermy table at the Baltimore gun show looking at a stuffed muskrat mounted on a cookbook base when he spotted a nice used leather comb raiser pad sitting in a scrappy cardboard box that...... (someone else can finish it)....

[Dave Suponski]

....that was right next to the crockpot filled with a possum stuffed with cabbage and sweet potatoes.....someone want to take it from here?....

[Roger Whitfield]

And plenty of beef jerky for those timid souls that are not quite ready for the possum and muskrat..:rotf:

[George Blair]

And plenty of beef jerky for those timid souls that are not quite ready for the possum and muskrat..:rotf:

Roger,you really think that's beef in the jerky sticks? It's all possom, muskrat and coon! Road kill of course ,that's how it gets pressed so thin. Next time you hit a gritty part spit in out cause it's sand and gravel from the road. And it is..... all Murphy's fault!:)

[Dave Purnell]

Okay,okay, I'm not responsible, but I did add to this thing, early on. I went to the Elliott Island Muskrat Dinner at the Methodist Church sponcered by the Elliott Island Volunteer Fire Department. It was advertised far and wide, in several newspapers, radio, and tv, from 1:00-5:00. I got there at 2:00 and had a pleasant meal with about twenty people present. The lady tending the buffet pointed to five pans of meat. First was fried chicken, then fried muskrat, stewed muskrat, deep-fried muskrat, and barbequed muskcrat. I'm adventurous, so I tried them all. Best I can tell you is, "they make some really good fried chicken"!!!!

[Angel Cruz]

:biglaugh: I've been following this thread, and you guys crack me up..I think I'll stick with the chicken

[Destry L. Hoffard]

I've got a pair of grey squirrels thawing out for supper tomorrow.

Parboil for five minutes, dredge in flour/salt/pepper mixture, then fry slow in bacon grease until golden brown. Fried potatoes and yellow hominy on the side with skillet gravy and biscuits to compliment. Apple butter on leftover biscuits for dessert. Sweet tea to drink of course.

I've got a few pork neck bones to steam in some sour kraut this weekend. I usually have stewed potatoes and pork 'n beans with this meal. You boys eat what you like and I'll eat what I like......


DLH