I grew up around Remington Hammerless Doubles. My father had a KED-Grade 12-gauge when my parents got married and headed west in October 1935. During the war he picked up a nice AE-Grade at Osborne & Uland Sporting Goods in Seattle. When we went back to Minnesota to grandpa's farm when I was an infant in the fall of 1946, he took the KED-Grade along and gave it to his youngest brother who had recently returned from adventures with General Patton. U.S. 12 ran near grandpa's farm and was a direct route to eight a day wild pheasants around Webster, South Dakota. The old family picture of the bird processing operation in grandpa's yard was annotated 72 pheasants and 72 ducks. About the time I was in junior high Dad added a 16-gauge AE-Grade to his arsenal, but that gun, serial number 136036, was stolen from his house in 1978.
The KED-Grade was used by one of my cousins when steel shot first came in and the last time I saw it in 2002 the chokes were bulged and the ribs popped loose! The 12-gauge AE-Grade is still in my gun safe along with my six Remington hammerless doubles.
|