Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave Noreen
Frank's Ye Olde Hunter ads made me nostalgic. I opened Google Earth and found I don't see anything familiar along the Alexandria waterfront. The address of Potomac Arms was Zero Prince Street. I no longer own any of the guns I bought there. Best gun I ever saw there I put Kevin onto, and he wrote his article "Grandma's Gun" for The Double Gun Journal about it.
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Yes, my eternal thanks to Dave for alerting me to "Grandma's 28", a Parker GH 28 gauge Damascus Steel jewel in completely original condition, purchased by a local Alexandria businessman from William Wagner's shop across the river in DC on Pennsylvania Ave. SE, a veritable Mesopotamia of Parker smallbores from the c. 1895 - 1915 era. Regular patrons included Gen. Billy Mitchell and Judge Louis Wright, both Parkerphiles in the little gauges. A very significant number of early Parker 28 bores can be traced directly to Wagner's shop.
It never ceases to amaze me the number of exotic and now-considered uber rare guns that came to within 25 miles of our nation's capitol; Henry Bartholomew's River Valley Farm on Broad Creek feeding the Potomac River became home to some of the finest A.H. Fox heavy waterfowl (and not a few bird) guns, handled by luminaries such as Nash Buckingham, 'Doc" Reuter, and Col. Jack Hession. Canvasback shooting within sight of the Washington Monument and Railbird hunting across the river in VA at Huntley Meadows - who could envision it today!?