Baker guns

[Cold Spring]

A gent who often shoots sporting with my gang is a Baker man and shoots them almost exclusively. His wife grew up in Batavia and he has some other early life connections with the town. He doesn't reload and is probably one of RST's biggest users although he also shoots LIGHT commercial 12-gauge shells from time to time. He has quite a few Bakers and hasn't mentioned any particular problems with them, though he almost always has a stock comb raiser, one of those stretchy sock type thingies, on the gun he's shooting that day. From that I perceive he either likes to float the birds or that most of the stock combs are too low for his physique.

[Drew Hause]

I have no idea why Baker guns were not more popular among turn-of-the-century Live Bird and Inanimate Target competitors, but were used very little at the GAHs.

W.R. Crosby was a representative for Baker from at least 1897 until 1899, twice winning the “E.C.” Target Championship of America.

At the 1899 Sportsmen's Show, Madison Square Garden - Fanning (Smith), Crosby (Baker), Budd (Parker), B. Leroy Woodard, Campello, Mass., (Remington), Heikes (Remington). Courtesy of Randy Davis.



He used a "$30 Baker Hammerless" at the 1899 GAH, but in Sept. 1899 was using a Paragon.
He went to a L.C. Smith in 1900, after 1906 used a Parker, and later an Ithaca 5E SBT.

Charles "Sparrow" Young, using the nom de plume of “Robin Hood” (as a rep for the Robin Hood Powder Co.) used a Smith in April 1900 at the GAH at Live Birds, then broke 25 straight at the Grand American Handicap at Targets in June 1900 with his own Young Repeating Arms Co. two shot pump.
After that business failed, he was a demonstrator for Baker Gun (W.R. Crosby having left Baker for Hunter Arms in 1900), a trade representative for Peters, and in 1907 he was shooting a Parker.

There was no Baker trade rep at the 1907 nor 1910 GAHs.

Lots of Baker pics here
http://www.picturetrail.com/sfx/album/view/17434920

This is a Frank Mason engraved Paragon



I believe this huntress on the cover of the Dec. 1913 Outdoor World & Recreation is using a Baker