Bill Tapply, the boy to whom Burton Spiller bequeathed that little Parker, was diagnosed with leukemia about four years ago and he decided his "things" needed to go. Bill and I (and probably a number of his friends as well as his wife Vicki) discussed the best way to find a new home for "Burt's Gun". Finally he and Vicki decided to put it up for auction with The Cobb's Auctions not far from where they lived and Bill notified me of that decision. I promised Bill that I would help by notifying people here on the PGCA forum and on the doublegun forum of the upcoming auction and Art Wheaton got the word out through a notice he placed in Shooting Sportsman. It was a promise I made to Bill that I would help but I also told him I had wanted that gun (and he knew it but he said to me "How can I possibly make that decision when some other friends have also asked me to sell it to them?") and it would be one of the hardest promises I have ever had to keep. In any case, I was at the auction as was Austin Hogan, Jim Stearns and a few other lovers of Parkers and Spiller's and Tapply's writing and I had a pocketful of money.... just not enough. "Burt's Gun" finally sold at about $10,500 which was about $2,000 more than I brought. Today Morris Baker of RST Shells is its custodian but, who knows.... maybe I'll have another chance someday but I don't believe Morris will ever part with it. He loves it as much as I do.
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