PHE 10ga 36"

[Bill Murphy]

Bill Mullins, the 40" 16 gauge G grade came out of Shenandoah Guns in Berryville, VA. Judging from the time it was there, decades ago, it probably came from the General Billy Mitchell estate, which the shop was selling off at the time. If it was in fact the same gun, the barrels were Vulcan steel. Ben Toxvard would not sell me the gun, but a few years later, he relented and sold me his Curtis try gun, which was owned by Colonel Townsend Whelen.

[6pt-Sika]

Originally Posted by Bill Murphy

Bill Mullins, the 40" 16 gauge G grade came out of Shenandoah Guns in Berryville, VA. Judging from the time it was there, decades ago, it probably came from the General Billy Mitchell estate, which the shop was selling off at the time. If it was in fact the same gun, the barrels were Vulcan steel. Ben Toxvard would not sell me the gun, but a few years later, he relented and sold me his Curtis try gun, which was owned by Colonel Townsend Whelen.

I was told Whelen had an intrest in that shop as more of a silent partner . A few years ago I met an older fellow in Culpeper that was big into single shot rifles . His two favorite cartridges were the Hornet and the R2 Lovell . He had a really awesome 03 Springfield in the Lovell cartridge I tried and tried to get as R F Sedgley had built the gun but I digress . The fellow at the time had an 1878 Sharps that was in 22 Blue Streak , if I’m not mistaken that was a 22 HiPower with refinements and necked back from .228 to .224 anyway he said he got it at Shenandoah Gunworks and it was a Whelen owned gun . He wouldn’t sell that one either , it was kinda neat in that it came with a period wooden tool box filled with loading tools for that gun . But then of the 40-50 guns of this type he owned I’d say over half of them had been purchased with period loading tools . The gentleman is gone now and I never got a gun from him but I did buy all his bullet molds . In his molds were a couple Ideal adjustable Perfection molds , I sold one of them right away and covered my cost with a few dollars left over . He had thirty or forty sealed G&H boxes of 22-3000 new primed brass , but it was so old it had gotten brittle but it still would’ve been of use to a cartridge collector .

[6pt-Sika]

I suppose thirty years ago Jerry Amos told my pop about a 16 gauge Parker at Clark Brothers that was 34 or 36 inches . They had called Jerry to see if he wanted it the gun was never made available to the public in the shop and after he turned it down it was sent to Terrell Texas the following day .

[Bill Murphy]

Craig, the comment about my try gun being previously owned by Colonel Whelen, was meant to mean that the gun was used by stockmakers at Parker-Whelen in Washington, D.C., not to imply that Colonel Whelen had any ownership at Shenendoah Guns. Colonel Whelen's gunsmith moved to Berryville when Parker-Whelen closed and brought the try gun with him and apparently did some work for Ben Toxvard, who ended up owning the try gun.

[6pt-Sika]

Originally Posted by Bill Murphy

Craig, the comment about my try gun being previously owned by Colonel Whelen, was meant to mean that the gun was used by stockmakers at Parker-Whelen in Washington, D.C., not to imply that Colonel Whelen had any ownership at Shenendoah Guns. Colonel Whelen's gunsmith moved to Berryville when Parker-Whelen closed and brought the try gun with him and apparently did some work for Ben Toxvard, who ended up owning the try gun.

The old guy in Culpeper had said Whelen had an intrest in the shop . That’s why I said he supposedly was connected .

[Bill Murphy]

Ben always referred to the gunsmith who brought the try gun to his shop as "the old man up on the mountain". The old man lived behind the shop "up on the mountain". I know the supposed man he refers to, an ex gunsmith from Parker-Whelen, but I won't name him because I'm not 100% sure. Now that Michael Petrov and Ben Toxvard are both gone, I have no one to ask.