New Member From Upstate NY

[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.