What Imbues a Gun With "Soul"?

[Bill Murphy]

All original smallbore Damascus Parkers have soul.

[C.O.B.]

IMHO the "soul" of a gun is in the eye of the beholder of that gun. Gunner's Gun for me has lots of soul, it invokes memories each time I take it out and creates new ones as well. It might mean nothing to someone else.

Sometimes you just see a gun and pick it up and something happens (this occurs for me at least three times a year at the Southern and Hausmanns) a case in point is a lovely DHE 20 with 30 inch tubes and a Charles Boswell 20 that weighs a scant over 5lbs. Both these came home with me immediately.

Hand craftsmanship also tends to allow a gun to have soul as evidenced in Parker, Fox and most English guns as does the well cared for usage of that fine firearm. The question of "where has it been? what has it hunted? who carried this before me? The stories these could tell also adds to the soul of the gun.

At the end of the day it's a personal feeling soul for me might not qualify as soul to someone else.

[6pt-Sika]

Originally Posted by John Campbell

• Japanese guns have no soul.

Well then that eliminates all those Jap Parker's a good many of you hold in high regard

[Hammer Gun]

Rich, It will not be as long as it has been on the Mattie Gun, engraving is finished it is at the stocker for fitting and then off to the French Grey man, did I show you the last engraving photos? This gun like Gunners will have Soul! Hell I might even sleep with the thing a night or two, for sure I will take a few photos of it laying against her stone, damn still get tore up thinking about her, Gary

[Phil Yearout]

Originally Posted by charlie cleveland

to me any gun could have soul just like a beautiful or plain jane person has a soul...i m sure no one will admit it but that first gun for most of us was a stevens or westernfield or mongeromy wards or...i have several guns that are not parkers and everone of them has soul...its in the eye of the beholder...remember that first bb gun did it have soul....charlie...

My first ever double gun is a Stevens 5100 in 16ga. I once took a limit of four wild prairie pheasants with four shots from that simple old shooter; if that doesn't give it soul (to me at least) I don't know what would!

I still have it, and it goes with me on every trip as a rainy day gun. I seldom shoot it any more, but if I'm completely honest, I may shoot it better than any of the "better" guns I own!

[Craig Larter]

When I buy a gun that interests me it has intrigue. In most cases it is a vintage American classic side by side made for waterfowl hunting. The gun inherits soul for me after I kill a few ducks over my black lab.

[C.O.B.]

Gary I have not seen any pics of the engraving on Mattie's gun. I'd love to however. I know it will be well worth the wait and it already has soul.

[Chris T.]

Don't knock the reproductions, if you were 15 years old and opened one up for Christmas it probably have more soul than any other gun you would own for the rest of your life.

[John E. Williams]

Mileage does it for me. The safe queens are nice to look at but they don't really click. I've got an old frosted up 1921 Trojan that's one of my favorites. The metal is what many of you would probably consider scrap and the wood's little better, but that old gun has lived a most full life. Locks up tight as a vault and has been killing squirrels this very season! I wonder how many families got through the depression with a somewhat full belly because of that simple old gun? For me, that's where you find soul.

An old friend of mine, John Madole, once took some kind of old Savage .22 Hornet he bought for like $200 and threw every ounce of toolmaking knowledge and artistic ability into it. It was really rather absurd, but he turned that piece of trunk trash into an absolute jaw dropper of a rifle. I seem to remember James Corpe fitting an exhibition-grade Claro walnut stock and forend to the little gun, and John had engraved and French grayed the receiver and so forth. Again, it was absurd. That rifle had soul because two of the greatest artisans I've ever met collaborated on a gun that should've never been considered for such a project and absolutely rocked it. The story goes that someone at a FEGA show once asked John why he bothered with such a hardware-grade gun to customize. He supposedly answered in his subdued way, "How much was the piece of canvas worth before da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa on it?" That was classic John. Wasn't so inclined to give you a direct answer as he was to ask you a pointed question which revealed the answer. God, I miss him...

[Alfred Greeson]

I have to go back to the old Parker collector, now gone, who said we love the old guns because they harbor old men's souls and they remind you of the old soul's now gone that we wish we could share the old gun with just one more time and relive the best days.
I like the reference to the old guitars, ever see Willie Nelson in concert and his old guitar that is so worn it has a hole in it and he sits it down right beside the bottle of Jack he sips during a concert, talk about soul! Old guns, old friends, good whiskey and old souls, not sure how to define them but I know they make life worthwhile.