Widgon Duck Club

[Setter Man]

Recently there have been several threads and posts centerd around long barreled small bore Parkers ordered by or shipped to specific duck clubs in Northern California. Do the records indicate specific orders of multiethnic guns that were ordered by the clubs and are the total number of guns known? The Widgon Duck Club has been mentioned specifically. Is that the only club that ordered guns or just the most famous? And why are these specific guns so coveted and sought after?

Thanks,
JDG

[Pay Dirt]

[OH Osthaus]

great gun Bobby
you have to love that long lean look with those barrels and a straight grip.

please excuse my ignorance but what is a "multiethnic gun"?

[C.O.B.]

Originally Posted by Rick Losey

please excuse my ignorance but what is a "multiethnic gun"?

I was wondering the same thing

[Ed Blake]

Several years ago Steve Barnett had a 32" DHE 20 on a #1 frame for sale. It was dated about 1916, I think. I thought about buying it, but the price was way out of my reach and the gun had problems: busted ejectors primarily and was loose as a goose. I figured once I bought it I still had another grand to go to make it right. The original owner though, was a prominent lawyer in LA who was actively involved in railroads and water rights. I can't remember the name, but I should have pursued research a bit further because it sounded like he was a big playa in LA at the turn of the 20th century. Was he a Widgeon Duck Club member? Dunno, but the gun had all the earmarks of a California small bore duck gun.

[Setter Man]

Love the gun porn but I'd really like to read more about the clubs, themselves.

Thanks,

JDG

[Pay Dirt]

Originally Posted by Jay Gardner

Love the gun porn but I'd really like to read more about the clubs, themselves.
Thanks,
JDG

California Fact

Acre for acre, the Central Valley of California supports more wintering waterfowl than anywhere else in North America. At peak times, this region hosts 5 to 7 million wintering waterfowl—more than 60 percent of the Pacific Flyway’s ducks and geese. As you would expect, the high ratio of birds to habitat results in some superb waterfowl hunting. This is especially true on private duck clubs in places such as Butte Sink, Suisun Marsh, and the Grasslands. Good public hunting is also available on several intensively managed national wildlife refuges and state wildlife areas in the region, which also support large numbers of wintering waterfowl.

Abundant species: pintails, mallards, wigeon, green-winged teal, Aleutian cackling geese,
white-fronted geese, light geese


Club Fact.

The Tulare Duck Club (original home of my gun) and the Wigeon Duck Club
share almost identical longitude and latitude.

The Tulare guns predate the Wigeon guns by over 1 year.

After receiving and using their 20 gauge DHE's, the members contemplated
ordering long barreled .410's. It seems due to the abundance of game,
it just wasn't enough of a challenge bagging birds with a 20 gauge.

[Dean Romig]

Originally Posted by Bobby Cash

California Fact

After receiving and using their 20 gauge DHE's, the members contemplated
ordering long barreled .410's. It seems due to the abundance of game,
it just wasn't enough of a challenge bagging birds with a 20 gauge.

Three or four years ago I was talking with a noted gun historian and authority (who's name I am not at liberty to divulge) who told me of knowledge that had recently come to him regarding a pair of Grade 7 or 8 Parker .410's with 32" barrels that went to California to either a pair of brothers or best friends. The other half of this information was that at least one, if not both, would soon come to market.... that was three or four years ago and, though I don't travel in such circles that are in the know or have the ability to make such a purchase, no news of the availability of such fabled guns has reached my ears.

[John Davis]

Well, it's not California but:

December 13, 1902, The Sportsmen’s Review, “Capt. A. W. DuBray (‘Gaucho’), whose entertaining sketch descriptive of trap shooting, field and duck shooting in the Canadian Northwest, appears in this week’s issue, adds this comment: ‘It may interest some of my readers to know that barring part of one day only while duck shooting in Canada, and simply because I had no ammunition for it at hand, I used my old full choke 20-gauge 30-inch barrel Parker gun and Winchester factory loaded Leader shells. The most skeptical regarding the use of so narrow a gauge were instantly converted, and many have resolved on giving both gun and ammunition a thorough trial next season, when I am sure, if they follow my lead, they will never regret making the change, it being apparent to all that both are unsurpassed of their kind.”

[MarketHunter]

Murphy you've got a much information on this sort of thing as anybody. Why don't you publish?

Destry