Bruce whats the distance from the end of the top tang to the nose of the comb? It looks to be very short as is my CHE Bernard 16.

The most outrageous late Cs I have seen were displayed in Randy Shuman's shop. They were a consecutive numbered pair of 20 gauges cased in factory oak and leather. They seemed to be identical to the pair of A1 Specials known by those who have seen them as "The Yellow Guns", because of the very light colored English Walnut stocks. A recent owner of these guns made the ridiculous decision to refinish the stocks darker. The pair of late CHE 20 gauges was stocked in similar wood. Maybe they will show up at Louisville.

I haven't seen those but I recall the blonde C triplets cased all three in a single Huey case and being sold by Bob Skeuse on consignment from ________. Its been a couple years since I saw them. They languished on sale for a long time at $75,000 asking. I don't recall who finally bought them. I think they were 16,20 and 28ga and identically stocked. Interesting guns.

The A-1S blonde twins are also quite interesting. I saw them once somewhere although I saw the C triplets several times. Like other blonde sisters, they would have been a wealthy man's diversion.

Bruce, although all three sets we are discussing are probably factory originals, it is odd that the triplets are not cased in original oak and leather. Maybe they were cased from the factory as individual guns and a recent owner chose to case them together. I have not seen the triplets, but I believe BS also handled the A1 pair. A story Kevin McCormack and I may have told in the past is sitting down with a long time local friend of ours who originally outed the A1 pair many years ago. We were telling old war stories and this friend told one about once buying a pair of light wooded late A-1 Specials for $2500 and soon after, doubling his money to a Florida collector!! We tried to give him some recent ownership history on the guns, but he wasn't swallowing any of it. He thought we were pulling his leg.