For various reasons, I went to a local gun show yesterday. First time in years. I was somewhat stunned by the quality of the guns there. No, it wasn't spectacular by any means, but that there was even one interesting gun or guns just there to show and not sell, was a first in decades for me. There were cased Parker repros, some other CSMC guns, a Merkel or two, and the usual rabble of lower grade American doubles. There was a guy who specialized in Ohio muzzleloaders. He had a table full of them just to show and chat about. A few were pretty rough in spots, but he would point out some still well-preserved features that were unusual and showed excellent craftsmanship.
Overall, the ratio of black walnut to black guns was far above what I expected, even if they weren't all collectors guns. I bought only a few reloading handtools, but it was still worth my time to see these and some old lever guns.
There was one gun, however, that stood out above the rest, and the seller/owner was more than happy to let me snap a pic and then gave me a link to some more pictures on line. I thought a few of you here might appreciate it.
This is a 20 gauge singleshot. The weight I disremember, but it was well under 5 lbs. The gun has double set triggers and the barrel's serial number is 1 more than the action serial number, which lead the seller to speculate that there is a second barrel out there, almost certainly a rifle barrel. Sounded reasonable to me. In any event, a beautiful gun with wonderful metal to wood fit, spectacular engraving with silver wire inlay, and fabulous condition (minus the underlever).
I held the gun to inspect and thought hard about what I could do with it. Hunt turkeys? I don't know if would be up to that. But what a great piece of work.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
https://p10.secure.hostingprod.com/@soundco.org/ssl/0321auctions/Sempert_Krieghoff/index.html