The gun had been a competition gun for much of its life and had had the metal restored by William B. Saxbe at Del Grego's probably. The wood was past its prime, poorly finished with a cracked forearm as I recall. A few years ago, Kevin McCormack and I were visiting our friends Babe and Lawrence Del Grego and I spotted a finished stock and splinter forearm on the bench. I asked about it and was told that they had built the stock for a customer's VHE and the customer wanted to exchange it for a fancier piece of wood. Kevin, Babe and I were headed out to lunch when I asked Lawrence whether there was a chance that the stock might fit on the tired old trap gun. He gave me the standard answer that "such things just don't happen". When the three musketeers returned from lunch, you can guess what we found. The new stock and forend were fully installed and fitted on the Attorney General's trap gun. I shot the gun a little, but my favorite trap and pigeon gun is my old PHE crossover two barrel set, and I didn't need two. I picked Dave as the PGCA friend that most needed a big gun. The VHE doubled a bit and I told Dave about it. To complete the story, the gun has never doubled in Dave's hands. To end this story, Dave, tell us when the gun was made so we can put it in the elder Mr. Saxbe's hands at the time of the big scores in 1926 and 1927. For those who asked, the original gun was a full house VHE trap with beavertail. They are rare birds in V Grade. I was in error when I said I bought the gun from WBS's estate. Mr. Saxbe was alive when I purchased the big Parker. He passed away in 2010.
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Threaded Mode