Eastern SxS Classic - West Virginia Panhandle

[chuck brunner]

Murph
I am humbled by your kind words. The show was great because of its attendees and your endorsement means everything. I hope it will grow and our attendance next year will include all of our friends. There were some Great guns there and some fabulous competition. The shoot-off between Roger Bain (Winchester Custom Shop 30" Trap ) and George Calamaris ( Parker VHE 32" Trap ) on the trap competition was exactly what we had hoped for ..... Down to the last shot with 1 bird separating the winner. We saw some beautiful old single and double trap guns including Kevins BHE vent rib 32" trap as well as Charley Brooks old LC Smith warrior.. Rich Anderson shot a borrowed a mint c grade single shot ... Roger graciously offered a honorary toast to George and proceeded to pass the West Va. Mason Jar around the horn.....George provided the Palmetto Distillery "Shine". A fitting end to a great day..... Britton as you said is a fabulous shooter and had some very tough competition from the entire field. He informed me that the course was tough but all targets could be broken and it showed....No one ran it but there were some high scores all 3 days..John and Jimmy did a great job of setting it up. And then there will be the pictures...Lots of pictures... Taken by Mike Smith of North Carolina ... He graciously stayed until the very end to take the photos of the winners from all the events and will be uploading many photos from all 3 days ... Thanks again Mike ..... Then there were the guns ... a smoking original vhe 410 skeet ... Darryl's cache of 28ga guns that continued to come out of cases from everywhere and Johnathan's Family Foxes ..... Never again in this lifetime ... these were fitting for a museum ... they shot the course .. Gary Downey shot the Dean Whitter 20 ga over/under Woodward (well) at 5 stand with all the other Pegs filled with England's best ... I had a blast to say the least ...

[Big Friend Ten (BFT)]

Below are a few photos of our Parker group shooting. There was me, who you do not see as I had the camera, and Jonathan Engle shooting a Becker built Fox, Mike Smith shooting a Fox Skeet and Upland, Rich Anderson, Daryl Corona, and Chuck Bishop. Harold Pickens joined us on the second day and unfortunately in not in these photos!

Photo #2 shows Mike Smith, Chuck Bishop, a great trapper, Jonathan Engle, and Rich Anderson.
Photo #5 shows Daryl Corona watching Mike Smith shoot.
Photo #8 shows my 36" DH 10, Jonathan's Becker built Fox CE, and Mike's Fox Skeet and Upland.

[Harold Pickens]

Chuck,
This was my first time at an event like this and I had a great time. Prospect Hall is a beautiful place and the people were wonderful. Met a lot of good people and saw plenty of nice guns. My favorite guns were those seen during the "show and tell" out of the backs of our trucks. Daryl's 28's and GHE 20 were something else.
I got to shoot with Rich, Mark, Mike, Daryl, and Chuck. Rich shot his 28 as well as he did his 12, and Mark can swing those big 10's as fast as anybody.
I don't think I have ever shot as poorly as this weekend. I did get sick Thurs. night and felt like crap the whole time, but that's no excuse.
Hope you hold the event again next year. Thanks to you, your lovely wife Traci, Mr. Algood, Jimmy, and the Virginia Vintagers for such a nice time.
Harold

[Big Friend Ten (BFT)]

A few more snapshots for you!

Photo #1; Rich Anderson, unknown, Chuck Brunner (Greenes Guns and this event's organizer), and Tracy Brunner.

Photo #2; Jonathan Engle and Roger Bain discussing the provenance of Jonathan's great grandfather's collection of Burt Becker built AH Fox guns while Mike Smith is photographing that collection.

Photo #3; Rich Anderson and Chuck Bishop manning our humble Parker Brothers display. Anyone know where us midwesterners could obtain a Parker Brothers tablecloth?

Photo #4; Jonathan Engle holding one of only two B Grade 8 Gauge Parkers with Mike Smith.

Photo #5;
Unknown, Fred Verry(sp?), Harold Pickens, Mike Smith, Bill Murphy, and Chuck Bishop.

[Big Friend Ten (BFT)]

Photo #1; New guys Harold and Mike getting an education from Parker Master Bill.

Photo #2; A few of the Parkers on display!

Photo #3; Virginia Vintager, LC Smith affectionado, and event host Jent Mitchell.

Photo #4; PGCA Research Committee Chairman Chuck Bishop.

[Big Friend Ten (BFT)]

Rich Anderson trying to figure out how to buy legendary Parker Brothers' salesman and Knight of the Trigger, Author DuBray's WC Scott pigeon gun. The top rib is inscribed "Custom Made for Author DuBray"!

[Big Friend Ten (BFT)]

And the grand finale; Jonathan Engle's great grandfather's Parker B Grade 8 gauge!

I recommend that you click on these photos so that they will open to a larger size to reveal the details of the engraving.