Mileage does it for me. The safe queens are nice to look at but they don't really click. I've got an old frosted up 1921 Trojan that's one of my favorites. The metal is what many of you would probably consider scrap and the wood's little better, but that old gun has lived a most full life. Locks up tight as a vault and has been killing squirrels this very season! I wonder how many families got through the depression with a somewhat full belly because of that simple old gun? For me, that's where you find soul.
An old friend of mine, John Madole, once took some kind of old Savage .22 Hornet he bought for like $200 and threw every ounce of toolmaking knowledge and artistic ability into it. It was really rather absurd, but he turned that piece of trunk trash into an absolute jaw dropper of a rifle. I seem to remember James Corpe fitting an exhibition-grade Claro walnut stock and forend to the little gun, and John had engraved and French grayed the receiver and so forth. Again, it was absurd. That rifle had soul because two of the greatest artisans I've ever met collaborated on a gun that should've never been considered for such a project and absolutely rocked it. The story goes that someone at a FEGA show once asked John why he bothered with such a hardware-grade gun to customize. He supposedly answered in his subdued way, "How much was the piece of canvas worth before da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa on it?" That was classic John. Wasn't so inclined to give you a direct answer as he was to ask you a pointed question which revealed the answer. God, I miss him...
|