A Bo Whoop pilgrimage
 

On our recent trip to the Southeast, I talked Elaine into stopping by Memphis on our way home so that I could visit the Ducks Unlimited Headquarters to view their display on Nash Buckingham. In particular, I wanted to see his famous Super Fox, Bo Whoop (if you don’t know of the famous gun's history, google it, there’s plenty of information). I was not disappointed. The display included three of Nash’s Fox guns, including Bo Whoop and Bo Whoop II, along with a beautiful 20 gauge Fox. I got to see some of the scrapbook pages from his time at Harvard, and his old button-festooned hats. Seeing Bo Whoop has been a bucket list item for me for some time, and as an aficionado of sporting literature, having the chance to view the books and related items from his life was a real treat.

I also visited the DU Heritage Museum at the Bass Pro shop at the Pyramid. I thought of all of my big bore loving colleagues as I viewed the displays of 4 and 8 gauge guns (Charlie and Milton, I have some photos for you if you like) and punt guns. It was a nice end to our 9 state tour that offered us a chance to escape the cold weather of North Missouri.

It’s hard not to be moved a bit while viewing those now relics of the past.

Photos:

1. This diorama shows pages from the shooting log at Beaverdam and the proof of Nash’s autobiography.
2. Nash’s scrapbook from his time at Harvard.
3. His published books, including the much sought after Derrydales
4. One of his signature hats.
5. Bo Whoop…need I say more?
6. His sweet 20 gauge (if only it had had two triggers, Reggie!)

I am a long-time admirer of Nash Buckingham, though I've never hunted bobwhite and only shot ducks in the years before 1970 but I love his writing style and his true dedication to conservation and bag limits.

The only original Derrydales I have of his are "Mark Right" and "De Shootinest Gent'man" - true literary works of art. I had No. 25 of "Game Bag" but foolishly sold it.

But to visit the Ducks Unlimited headquarters would be a real destination trip for me.


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Garry tell us more about the 20!

Besides the fact that it was modified by Burt Becker, there was no other information about the 20...except I'm sure that I saw your initials engraved on the top tang.

Still, it was a sweet looking Fox, even if it did have a single trigger.

I wish that I was the owner of a 20 gauge that had been modified by BB. You could probably shoot crows at 80 yards with it. Good stuff Garry, thank you.

Was that 20 the quail gun he loved?





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The 20-gauge is the Hal Howard gun that Nash referred to in his writings as the "big 20". See The Double Gun Journal, Volume Seven, Issue 4, page 21. Nash ordered it for his friend. The gun is 202651 shipped June 1928. It had a cheekpiece stock, CE-engraving, 30-inch barrels ordered improved modified and full and 28-inch barrels both bored improved cylinder.

Nash's "Burt Becker Quail Gun" is a 12-gauge.

Having spent an afternoon with Bo Whoop during October of the year before it was auctioned at Julia's I can appreciate your infatuation with the great gun, and it's original owner. I have a set of all the reprints of seven of Nash's books and agree with Dean on his unique writing style.

I followed the whole affair from the time Bo Whoop was "discovered/outed" by Jim Kelly, until it was bought at auction by the son of one of Nash's hunting partners, then donated to the DU museum. I was very pleased that it ended up where it did, and had secretly hoped that it would, and would not end up in some collector's dark closet never to be seen again until said owner croaked.

Bo Whoop and me in Savannah one October afternoon ......

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SRH

You are a lucky man.

Dean, my copies are from the reprint series that Doug Mauldin did in the 80's. I signed up for the series before I even knew what a Derrydale was, and kept it up through the whole "book-of-the-month" thing. Glad I did, as I'd never have been able to afford - therefore read - originals. All are true to the originals in content; some less so in binding, etc. It appears these two are some of the ones that were quite true...

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Garry, what a great experience!

I meant to ask if Bo Whoop 2 is still there? As I recall it is Becker serial number 121. When he could no longer use it, Nash was going to sell it to Bart Cox, grandson of his friend Henry Bartholomew, but his shooting partner Dr. William "Chubby" Andrews expressed interest and he got Bo Whoop 2. At the time of his book Nash Buckingham, Beaver Dam and Other Hunting Tales Dr. Andrews states he transferred Bo Whoop 2 to Mr. Billy Dunavant. It was on display at the DU headquarters when I visited well before Bo Whoop surfaced.

Nash Pictures
 

Here are a few pictures that came out of an office space in Memphis. One is a young Nash when he played football at the University of Tennessee.

Dave, Bo Whoop II is there.

I've been a sporting book collector longer than I have been a gun collector. If you haven't read Buckingham, I recommend Tattered Coat for a first read -- my favorite story.

Robert Urich (remember the TV show, Spencer for Hire) was involved in the publishing of Nash's autobiography. Back before his untimely death from cancer, he came to our university for an alumni affair. I was sick that night and could not attend, but I sent Elaine to get him to sign the book. She told me that he was very impressed that in that crowd of academics there was someone who knew about his association with the Buckingham book (much to the chagrin of some of my anti-everything-sporting colleagues). I can't help but grin every time I see his signature. It's probably something that only someone who spent 40 years among PhDs could understand, but maybe you get the picture...

Urich and his family lived here in Andover for a few years. They came to the Boston area for the hospitals for his wife's care. Unfortunately that didn't work out so well.
Saw him a few times at restaurants but never met him - and I had no idea he was involved with the book!?!





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Dean, many of Nash's things on loan to DU were from Robert Urich and his partners. They acquired the materials that finished out Buckingham's autobiography.

yes I would like to see the pictures of those 4 and 8 bores....if I ever go to Memphis I want to see bo whoop also...this man could write ....charlie

My heart was beating so hard it felt like I was walking up to the wedding altar again! As I looked down those barrels I was keenly aware that Nash had seen the exact same view as he shot those "tall ones" over the cypresses. It was truly a once in a lifetime experience. I took it apart, measured the bores, chokes, barrel length, made notes on the checkering style, and everything else i could think of to check. I had previously spoken with Dave Noreen on the phone to get his advice on what all to look for to try to determine authenticity. At the time, there was much naysaying going on about it's authenticity. I came away totally convinced of it's authenticity, and made that statement on the AHFCA forum eventually.

I always thought there were a lot of gun fanciers who were more caught up in the gun's legend than in the gun itself. It was almost like it was heresy to claim that the gun was authentic. It seemed that many wanted the gun to remain lost, because it made for such a good story. When Austin Hogan examined it for Julia's many of the naysayers hushed up. Then, there were those who tried to claim it was "stolen" and should be returned to Nash's heirs. I emailed Julia's about that and they replied with a very lengthy rebuttal to any claims as such, which made perfect legal and ethical sense.

To those who say they would not pay a penny more for a vintage gun based upon provenance, I say fine. But, I would .........if it had been used by Mistah Nash.

Stan, I could not agree more. There is a pretty decent account of what Julia's did to legally sell the gun in a Garden and Gun article some years back. For me, there are really two legends to the gun: one that is the story of its loss and subsequent recovery/verification, and the other is the mystic attached to the gun written about (and used) so effectively by Buckingham.

On a similar note: last September I had the chance to examine, measure and clean Fred Gilbert's L. C. Smith that he won the 1895 Du Pont Cup with. Looking down the barrels of that gun (which I knew by touch fit me perfectly) made me think that even I might be able to drop a bird in the ring.

It's special "stuff" for lovers of these relics of the past.

For Charlie and Milton -- I thought about you guys when I saw these monsters. The Purdey was my favorite.

I did not mention the duck decoys and original duck stamp art that I saw, did I? Spectacular!

thanks a million for these pictures and of us fellows who may never get to see these guns and artifacts....charlie

In 2010, Jim Julia and Wes Dillon brought Bo Whoop over to the A.H. Fox Collectors Association tables at Las Vegas and left it with us a while.

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Paul trying for the Nash pose --

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Wes Dillon is a name I've not heard in a while. I bought guns from Wes when he was at Game Fair, Cabela's, and Julia's. Josh filled me in on his "retirement" -- I'm happy for him.

It must have been a great day at the gun show, Dave. I did notice the Buckingham pose. You need Chubby to make it complete.

Thanks for the photos!

Garry, I recognize those big guns from the mini-museum in the "Pyramid Cabela's" at Memphis. I have hunted ducks for over 25 years about 40 minutes across the river from it, on the L 'Anguille, White and Cache rivers in eastern Arkansas. Two years ago I was blessed to get to take two of my grandsons, who hunt ducks, there and we spent an afternoon at that Cabela's, then had supper at The Rendezvous.

I have hunted several times on the Cache in a blind that requires us to go right by an old blind site that Nash hunted from, and wrote about, called Trappers island. This photo is of a very large, and old, blind near Trappers Island that is called The Peabody Blind. It is so named because someone "appropriated" a red velvet covered "rope" from The Peabody Hotel in Memphis, where the scene of the mallards coming down the elevator and walking the red carpet to a pool in the lobby, plays out every morning. The Rendezvous restaurant is right in front of The Peabody, as I recall.

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In 2019 at the Colorado Weapons Collectors Show I ran into Wes. We had a nice chat and he said he was living in Colorado.

Garry, I wished I had known that you were going - i've been out of town for a few days - I couldn't tell from the various posts in this thread whether you actually went down to Beaver Dam Club at Tunica while you were in Memphis at the "Pyramid" etc. It's only about a 45 mins. drive south of Memphis to Beaver Dam and the original clubhouse and boat launch.

I've been there twice to shoot ducks and it is a real epiphany to sit in those blinds and watch the bird approach and filter through the timber. Stan Hillis and a precious few others can relate. The DU HQ museum and the "Pyramid" displays are great but the tiny local Tunica museum and diaspora are the "Stonehenge" of seminal American waterfowling. If you ever go again, be sure to see it!

That blind owned by Mike Boyd, and his son Lamar, is a very special place, indeed. The only thing that would make the hunt there more special for me would be to paddle a bateau from the original old clubhouse landing to the blind, or have a paddler and jump shoot them in the buckbrush. If I'm not mistaken it is the same blind that was hunted when some "privileged" DU guys took Bo Whoop duck hunting for one last time a few years ago. There was a write-up about that hunt in some publication, that I read.

I have a picture somewhere on the computer, though I can't seem to find it at this time, of five of us Fox aficionados who met up for a hunt in that blind on Dec.14, 2009. Two from LA, one from MS, one from CA, and myself from Jawja. We each had a Super Fox gun (HE grade) that day. May have been the only time since the guns were made that there were five of them in the same blind hunting ducks. I'm afraid that pic may have been lost in the Photobucket fiasco.

There are some good pics of the hunt, and the guns, in the article submitted by Jim Cloninger of CA, in the AHFCA newsletter issue of Spring 2020.

My HE Fox .........

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Kevin and Stan, Thanks for this information(!) It's about a 7 hour drive from home to Memphis, and after Elaine has time to get resettled from our recent 9 state tour, I think I just might beg her again for a road trip back to Memphis. I would very much like to see what still is there from Buckingham's time, and I love visiting small, local museums and historical societies. Tunica is now on my agenda.

Thanks to all who responded to my post and added to the pleasure of my trip with additional information. I've read the account of the guys who shot there with their Supers, and now can claim I "know" some of those fortunate gentlemen.

BTW, we also revisited Hampton Plantation in South Carolina on our trip...but that's another story for another time. Needless to say, we had a great road trip.

When you visit that area around Tunica be sure to make time for a meal at The Blue and White. What a great nostalgic place to eat breakfast, lunch, or supper. At one time there was a closed circuit tv hanging on the wall that showed live footage from a local duck blind. Diners who couldn't hunt any more, or didn't for some other reason, could have breakfast while watching live hunts.

BTW, their potato soup is over the top. Melted cheddar on top, sprinkled with bacon crumbles. I had it one evening for supper and again the next morning for breakfast!

P.S. There's a great museum in Stuttgart, AR, across the big rivvah aways. Interesting historic stuff about the beginnings of it becoming "The Rice Capital of the World", which led to it's beginnings as a duck mecca. Nowadays much of the rice acreage around Stuttgart has been replaced by corn. Ducks don't like corn any better than they do rice. :rotf:

Stan, thanks for the recommendations. Duly noted and also now on the agenda. I'm sure when Elaine hears about The Blue and White, the trip will be a "go." One summer we took a trip using the book, Eat Your Way Across America, and our trips often include out of the way and unique restaurants. I can now present the trip as a hunting/gun AND eating pilgrimage. Stay tuned!:bigbye:

Not sure on the punts guns but Im going to guess the other three are 4 bores especially that double.

Not to hijack your thread but here are some 4 bores and other waterfowling guns at around the 2 minute mark. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jW2UU3JdpGw

There was a nice 8 in there, too. It looked like a 20 gauge in comparison.

I was lucky enough to have been a member of Beaver Dam Club for 9 years. I was friends with Bill Andrews, Dr. Chubby Andrews son. Dr. Andrews knew I loved fine doubles and as we were getting ready for a morning hunt he handed me Bo Whoop II and said "why don't you use this one today". I killed a limit of mallards with it. It is still a highlight of my shooting and gunning life. What they say about the Becker guns is true. They kill ducks at amazing ranges.

Shooting at Beaver Dam would be special in and of itself. Doing so with that gun would indeed be memorable.

Well now if you made it to Hampton you were within I’d say 20-30 miles of The Backwoods Quail Club ! You should give some thought into returning in mid October for a few days and shoot the Fall Southern Side by Side . While I like Sanford just fine , Rock Mountain and the Fall Southern were my two highlights of the 2021 clay targets shoots . Well you can add Prospect Hall in WVA but they’re mostly one day deals .

Thanks, Craig. I've never shot organized clays in my life. When I get too old to go grouse hunting in October any more, I'll give it a try.:) The way I shoot, I could provide great comedy relief at these shoots.

Garry, we don't go to win. I won a gun championship the first time I entered a vintage gun tournament at the Southern. I haven't won anything since, but I've written a bunch of checks to gun sellers.

Everyone’s been in that exact boat their first try be it skeet , trap , sporting or live birds . And everyone assumes others will laugh at them . I’ve found that to be about 180 degrees from the truth . Heck I’ve been shooting clay birds for a bit over fifty years and last year was the first time I’d ever shot live pigeons in competition . Folks at a pigeon ring seem to be even more complimentary than folks at the clay target games .