20 ga. VH

Harold Pickens · 02-21-2012, 03:10 PM

Pulled this little VH 20 out of the safe this weekend and decided it needs to make the trip to the UP this fall. I bought the gun in the late '80s in its current condition. It had been reblued,recased, and refinished. I dn't know who did the resroration. At the time, Turnbull, Del Grego, or Lefever were suggested, but I don't have a clue who may have done it. It has 26" barrels choked IC/M (original?)-not cut. LOP is 14", and weighs 6 lbs. It has fairly good dimensions for me. I think it needs to break some clays this summer. Serial # 177061. The picture is an original oil on board circa 1900 , unfortunately, not signed.

King Brown · 02-21-2012, 03:17 PM

If you think the painting could be improved with cleaning, try spit on a cotton ball, little spaces at a time. Buy the painting, not the name!

Chris T. · 02-21-2012, 06:56 PM

Nice recase job!

charlie cleveland · 02-21-2012, 08:18 PM

wish it were mine...just kidding a very nice little 20... charlie

Dean Romig · 02-21-2012, 11:36 PM

I think we can rule out Del Grego for the color case job as it was definitely not done in his signature cyanide process.

Larry Angus · 02-22-2012, 01:20 AM

Is there an example of a Del Grego color case job in the albums? I would like to contrast that with other color case restorations to see the difference.

Larry

Roger Whitfield · 02-22-2012, 07:55 PM

From the look of those case colors maybe the previous owner worked for Colt.

Wild Skies · 02-22-2012, 10:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dean Romig

I think we can rule out Del Grego for the color case job as it was definitely not done in his signature cyanide process.

I realize that this does not pertain to the gun in this thread, but in a direct conversation I had with Larry Del Grego he told me that they hadn't used the cyanide process for case coloring for at least the past 10 years---and we had that conversation three years ago.

Dean Romig · 02-22-2012, 10:42 PM

That's very interesting Greg. I had read that here before - some few years ago but I have yet to see an example of his case colors done in the last 13 years.

Can someone please show an example of his more recent work?

Harold Pickens · 02-23-2012, 12:37 PM

The gun may have been recased in Ohio, where I was living at the time I bought it. The pictures didn't turn out as well as I would have liked. In reguards to the oil painting, Shelly Spindell appraised it in his column in Sporting Classics in the early 1990's and it was also in the DGJ. It looks much better in person and really doesn't need cleaned.