New Member From Upstate NY

[Hixie]

Trying to get the hang of posting pics...here's a Cooper's Hawk I banded last weekend. You can see the band on its leg. Cooper's Hawks are one of the three species of Accipiters that we have in NYS, they are the mid sized species between Sharp-shinned Hawk and Goshawk. We can separate these by species and sex within species by wing and tail measurements. This one is a female.

You can see that it's eye is yellowish to maybe orange. A fully adult of this species will have a blood-red eye. I aged this one as in its third year.

[Hixie]

Here's a Rough-legged Hawk. They are winger visitors to my area from the Arctic. It's a fully adult female.

[Big D]

How does one capture a hawk?

[Hixie]

Now on to the REAL reason we are here. Following are photos of the family heirloom gun. It is a GH grade, 26" barrels, 1 frame 12 ga. made in 1906. You may recall from my earlier post, this gun came originally with 26" Damascus barrels but my Dad had them replaced with fluid steel barrels. I believe Del Grego did that work.

[Hixie]

The most-used trapping method for me is with the use of what is known as a Bal Chatri trap. I make them out of 1/2" galvanized hardware cloth into a Quonset hut structure about 14" x 12" x 4" or so. They serve as a cage for a wild mouse, and the top of the trap is covered with monofilament nooses. We typically ride the roads in rural, open farm country searching for perched raptors.

The trick is to set the trap where they can see it without spooking them. If they see the mouse and want it, they will fly to the trap and try to catch the mouse. They get their feet ensnared by the nooses and cant fly away. Then we remove them, process them and release them usually within 5 - 10 minutes.

[Hixie]

The other gun I inherited from Dad was a project gun. It is a GH 12 ga. with 26" Damascus barrels, 1 frame made in 1901. The letter says it was ordered by the E.K. Tryon Jr. and Co. of Philadelphia on Sept. 16 1901 and was shipped on Sept. 20 of the same year. Pretty darned good service for an entirely hand made firearm.

The gun was a disaster when my dad got it. Unfortunately there are no "before" photos of it, but I recall it was in very poor condition. The stock in particular was horrible. It looked like someone had taken a wood rasp to it. They removed so much wood that it is hard to figure out why. My thought was that it was a left eye dominant right handed shooter who was trying to get that left eye better lined up.

I have the original stock and forend. The stock had had wood filler added to fill in where the wood was removed. My guess there is that the stock maker did that so he could use a duplicator? Anyway...here are the photos:

[Bill Jolliff]

As I mentioned in my previous post, my good friend and hunting companion, Jerry Czech from Webster NY now deceased, also banded hawks and was an excellent artist.

Couple pictures of his water color paintings I have here at home. The paintings are better than what the photo's show.

[Hixie]

Wow, those are fantastic paintings. Mr Czech certainly was talented. Most birders I know prefer the field guides with hand drawn and colored images. They seem to highlight the diagnostic field characteristics more prominently than photos do.

[Dean Romig]

Well Ted, regarding the gun with the "fluid steel barrels" it would appear that 'somebody fooled somebody' because the barrel flats picture you posted distinctly show the D for Damascus with a 4 above it. The 4 is for 4-iron crolle. The original barrels may have been 'sleeved' but I don't see the line around the tubes where the Damascus breech section was cut off and fluid steel tubes were fitted. Maybe you could look closely to see if you can find any evidence of a joint line. It may well be there but the picture may not be sharp enough to see it. I would hate to think somebody would have duped your Dad and only blued the original set of Damascus barrels.





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[Hixie]

Dean - that gun had its barrels replaced; I think Del Grego did it. The original rib was used, which still says Damascus steel. With the gun in hand, you can see the joint line although it is fine. Whoever did it did a nice job. Maybe you can see it here: