Getting to meet famous authors can be quite interesting, John. I once had the grand opportunity to shoot a round of sporting clays with Jim Carmichael at the Southern Fall Classic at Georgetown, SC. We were shooting the hammer gun event at the time. He was so funny. When it was his turn to shoot, on the squad, he would load the gun then say aloud, but to himself, "Cock the damn thing." He would then pull the hammers back.
Afterwards I talked with him and mentioned something he once wrote about A H Fox shotguns in which he said:
"The double-barreled shotguns made by Ansley H. Fox in his
Philadelphia factory are classics for the simple reason that
they are the most beautiful shotguns ever made in America and,
for that matter, among the most beautiful boxlock designs ever
made anywhere. Whereas the customary practice of gun invention
was to design from the inside out, often enclosing the
mechanism in a plain outer shell that required engraving or
other embellishment to be presentable, the seductive lines of
the Fox receiver suggest that it was sculpted by an artist.
Like a lush maiden shed of her arrayment, the Fox needed no
engraving to accent its sensuous contours and, indeed, the
unadorned lowest grades perhaps best showcase their elegance
of form."
He got quiet, looked at me and said "I wrote that? I don't remember it."
I was incredulous.
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