Fantastic Pheasant Hunt to celebrate a Birthday

[Jean Swanson]

I shot a melanistic pheasant on a driven pheasant shoot in England in the late 1980's---- I remembered the term.

Allan

[Big D]

Here's my Daisy with a melanistic which she retrieved at a tower shoot we work at. She's had several hundred retrieves there. My prior dog, Tar had over a thousand

[Jeff S.]

Wow! Beautiful pictures Stan. I love the wood on those old Parkers.

[Stan Hoover]

Randy,
Thanks for the explanation on the melanistic pheasant, very interesting.

Gary,
I'm not certain I'm qualified to say this but I do believe the round knob grip is more common on the early guns, meaning lifters. Those checkered round knobs are definitely my favorite with any type of pistol grip being acceptable.
Those guns with boat oars for a buttstock are just not pretty to my eye, but I will make an exception if the gun has enough of other favorable options going for it.
It probably is a good thing that I don't prefer straight grip, that way I'm not competing with everyone else when they come up for sale.

Stan

[Harry Collins]

What a great hunt! Shane is a handsome young man and I remember my grandsons at that age. Their plate was full with sports, both school and otherwise (Wink). Your Lifter collection is something to behold. I have two from 1881. Each has Twist barrels. The 10 gauge has the round knob and the 12 is straight stocked. At Sandringham there are 17 hammered Purdey's behind glass. I had once aspired to have as many hammered Parkers or better, but I'm winding down. It warms my heart to see a young man or woman shooting a hammer gun. Keep after it!