Chris, This great research. Keep up the good work my friend. I find this stuff very interesting.

Thanks Dave,
I've gathered quite a bit of material on Jack Fanning and the Try-Guns over the past few years, and it remains a work in progress... I've also been lucky in collecting some great early Dupont Powders items in my travels, and hope to put it all together for a good read in the future...

Best, CSL
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Really looking forward to seeing it Chris as I know you have been hard at work on this for awhile now...

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Drew that's a good one, I remember running across that article a few years ago, Murph and I were debating over whether or not that was a Smith he is holding... The straight on image you posted of Jack's mug looking directly at the camera was a rare occurrence, as he had this thing about always turning away for a profile shot in photos... Of the 7 or 8 original old photos I have of Fanning at gun clubs and other shooting events, most folks are looking straight ahead, and Jack is looking sideways in all of them...

Best, CSL
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You've no doubt seen this DuPont trade card Chris: Jack Fanning, Tom Marshall, Fred Gilbert, Rolla Heikes and J.A.R. Elliott and all look to be 'seniors'
Elliott retired in 1912 to promote his "Elliott Ear Drum Protector" introduced in 1904

http://pic20.picturetrail.com:80/VOL.../372160130.jpg

Chris, you probably have the same reference I do of the Dupont salesmen going on the road with try guns. I think you sent me a copy of the "Dupont Try Gun" article. However Parker GH #158,664 was actually specified to be for the Atlantic City Trapshooting School on the Parker Brothers order. It was to be sent directly to A.P. Curtis, then to Atlantic City. The school may have been promoting a certain brand of shotgun, but it wasn't just Parkers because the Ithacas were marked with big white letters on the stocks as was the Parker VH 20. I believe, as you do, that there were more than one Curtis Parker try gun, but I have never seen one other than #158,664.

http://pic20.picturetrail.com:80/VOL.../381232255.jpg

This is the only picture I can remember seeing of a famous shooter of that era using a glove on his barrel hand.

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Dean,
Go back and look at the photo I posted of Hank, Jack, and Neaph, all three men are wearing gloves, Apgar's is on his right hand as he was a left handed shooter... Gloves on hot barrels back in the day of high volume competition shooting with splinter forends was very common...

Best, CSL
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Bill,
I'm just curious, are you sure about a reference on the Parker Brothers order page to send #158,664 to the Atlantic City Trapshooting School after A.P. Curtis was done with it?... And are you sure it was 1914?...

Perhaps I miss read the Parker Brothers order page, but I did not see any reference to the Atlantic City Trapshooting School, and I thought the date was 1916...

Just want to make sure my information and time-lines are correct...

Best, CSL
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Thanks Chris - now I see the gloves. I guess I just never looked close enough at the pictures but the one I referenced is just so obvious, being such a large (and likely lined) glove.