Where is Kevin McCormack?????
 

Kevin used to post a lot back in the day. I miss his posts. He is probably enjoying retirement too much and posts infrequently. He is one of the sage’s with great opinions and advice. If you see this Kevin, I need to have a sit down with you and Bill before I move out of Maryland. Although I am still a bit miffed at you for selling grandma’s gun and your dismissal of the elk with the thingy on my former CHE. :)

Hello Tom - rest assured that I am alive and well here in "affluent Northern Virginia", as the travel mags like to gush. Let Bill and I know your departure date from the People's Republic of Maryland and we will have a sit down.

It will please you to know that "Grandma's 28" is also alive and well and in very good hands in a collection in Florida. Like Halley's Comet, we will see her again albeit maybe not in my lifetime. And if it is any consolation, the only Parker I kept out of my collection when I began chasing Ansley Foxes' Finest, my 1 of 2 known Damascus 26" 16 ga. 0 frame AH grade, also sports a sprightly stag running through the forest on its floorplate!

Don't tell me, let me guess... engraved by Frederick Anschutz I would surmise. He was one engraver who would often engrave his dogs and stags as "decidedly male" with a definite "thingy".





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We should have a picture of that!

It's good to hear from Kevin. I plan to buy him and Bill dinner when we have the sit down. Lot's of stuff to talk about. I have a lot of catching up to do with those boys. Unlike Kevin, I went in the opposit direction with my collection. I sold every non Parker, except for my Holland 28 bore. Parkers are in my blood. The first guns I ever saw as a post toddler were Parkers, the first gun I ever fired was a Parker at eight years old and the first grouse I ever took was with a Parker. But after the sale of "other" shotguns, I got it in my head that I needed a 20 bore Fox. I bought a closet CE 20 bore from Gary Herman years ago. It had factory 25" barrels both bored full choke. Why anyone would order 25" barrels with full choke is beyond me. But if I remember correctly, Bill Murphy had a wonderful 16 bore GH two barrels set, one of which was a factory 25" with full choke in both barrels. I sold the fox because I couldn't take it grouse hunting and I absoutly refuse to mess with factory chokes. It's an abomination, in my opinion. But the little CE was one pretty gun.