doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com 20 Gauge William Evans - What to do with the stock

That's very nearly a centre vision stock, and do the old beadies deceive me or are the top and bottom tangs not bent into the cast?

Tough old call if they are; major wood butchery and metal bashing in view.

Eug

Is your son right handed?

It appears to me that they are slightly bent into the cast, but only slightly. That's another problem right there if you want to alter the stock.

I think you would be money ahead buying your wife a modern O/U with no cast and having the LOP adjusted to her specifications.
The gun was a generous gift. Altering it to fit the wife might diminish that gift, particularly when you get the bill. Far from being a safe queen, that one looks to have led a useful life. It is not rare or particlarly valuable, based solely on what it is, and will not likely be worth the costs to fit it to your wife for her to do her best shooting with the gun. Sad fact.
If your son shoots, and is right handed, the gun might work out better for him. Problem with many kids is the lack of interest in the history of their parents possessions, and the gun making a one way trip to a pawn shop or consignment gun store. Still another sad fact.
We haven't heard from the actual owner of the gun (your wife) and while there are many that would simply tell you to do what you will with it, there are more than a few that won't. Or, won't be happy with the result. It won't look or feel like the generals gun after this is over.
Tread carefully. I see a lot of expense making it her gun, versus the previous owners.
I presume it fit him well.


Best,
Ted

That is a serious cast off bend on this gun. It may be hard to get it curved to the cast on side.

There must be a 'rest of the story'.

One would not gift such a gun to a left handed shooter for the purpose of actual use.

There must be more to it.

This can't be the gun involved in the deliberate missing story. A 'General' could not be so clueless.

This gun may or may not have been fitted to the general. Does he look to be a tall man with wide shoulders?

He was not the original owner. How did he obtain the gun and for what purpose?

The world wonders.

For a wondering world: General Palit was born in 1919. He was a Bengali. His father and grandfather were medical doctors - they went to British schools and England and adopted English ways especially when it came to gun sports. He opted to go into the Army and went to the Indian (Imperial) Army academy in Dera Dun about 1937. This was difficult for a Bengali at the time because the Brits had classified the various "races" in India according to war fighting proclivities. Pashtuns, Sikhs, Maharattas, Rajputs were warlike...Bengalis were relegated to medical and food. He had the temper of a bantam rooster though and through intellect and force of will (and guile - yes he was wily) climbed the ranks in the Indian Army, first under the Brits then after 15 Aug 1947 in the Indian Army. He was a Major General when the Indian army only had 4 major generals and the Chief of Staff was 3 star. His discussion of the Sino-Indian war (1962) was fascinating...(and as every Indian account of that debacle, possibly self-serving).

https://books.google.com/books/about/War_in_High_Himalaya.html?id=ukw1PuEt8IcC

as well as the Pak wars of 1948 and 1967.

He was our landlord in India. He had built a large house in Shanti Nikitin neighborhood of New Delhi, not too far from the American Embassy and rented to the Embassy - and lived on the same compound in a small town house attached to the main house.

He was not a big man - 5'9", wiry. He very fit and was still playing polo when I left - he was 72 at that time. He was divorced; his son wasn't much interested in his life. When I knew him he was extremely disciplined. He would rise at 0500, do an hour or two of yoga, he would write from 0900-1000. He came over every afternoon about 1800 for one whiskey. He also had tea with my wife regularly and adored our youngest son to whom he gave a polo pony (when the boy was 3 years old).

As he got older he became ever more the Indian nationalist and his writing took an anti-colonial Indian socialist turn. Nevertheless his military writings were deemed important and one of his books was used regularly in the US Command and General Staff College in Birmingham.

https://books.google.com/books?id=E...ahUKEwjJsJyqnqXTAhUJMyYKHYGMBWEQ6AEIIzAA

In fact because I had his ear, as Desert Storm approached I was asked by the Ambassador to discuss the upcoming offensive with him and a number of retired Indian generals, to try to get the Indian government to persuade Saddam to get out of Kuwait. The effort failed of course and India, stupidly, following its socialist/anti-Western colonialist mantra threw in with Saddam at the last minute - one of 7 countries to do so, Cuba, North Korea, Peoples Democratic Republic of Yemen, Soviet Union, etc. Nice company.

He had on his wall 5 SxS's. a 12 ga. Holland & Holland; a 12 ga. Army-Navy; a 12 ga. EM Reilly hammer gun; the 20 ga. William Evans and one I'm not sure of (I think it might have been a big-bore SxS rifle). These were handed down to him by his grandfather and father. He also gave us a 500 page typewritten manuscript written by various members of his family over 70 years, much of it about hunting in India...tigers, snipe...you name it. It is an incredible British Raj type journal and an amazing insight into the mores of the early 20th century. He usually used his H&H when we hunted; I never actually saw him shoot the Wm Evans though. However, the story of the gun might be in the manuscript - I have to go through it. (or it may be it was something he acquired and didn't have a direct connection to his family?)

He gave the William Evans to her for several reasons; 1) she was beautiful; 2) she was genuinely interested in India and often accompanied him down town for shopping (she in her hat and long dresses - him in his three piece suits with people in the crowds muttering in English, "Old school"); 3) she took care of him...took up riding for instance; 4) I made a contribution to a historical scholarship fund he had set up for young Indian historians (and Indian "historians" at the time were Marxist or Nationalist and thus their intellectual contribution was suspect); 5) his son wasn't much interested in the guns. And he felt the memory of them or one of them would be better preserved with us. He visited my family in America and came to Greece later where we went up to Thermopylae and to Meteora.

I'll repost a picture of us after one of our hunting trips. And will later post a picture of her and of my son on his polo pony. An utterly fascinating man and I was fortunate to see India at the tail end of the Raj - the "permit raj" - When India was still little changed from the British days.

I've pretty well decided to take out the butt extension (and retain it), add a new recoil pad (orange) and leave it at that. I'll have to get her buy-in though and will need to discuss this with son. He is not going to pawn this gun - it is part of his blood. He is right handed. Actually she is too but because of a weak right eye, shoots left handed. If she objects to the change, we'll do the recoil pad and just call it a day.

A fascinating story, and I thank-you for taking the time to write it.

It looks to be the perfect gun for her to learn to shoot right handed! Eug is right about the center vision stock. I'm pretty sure I could shoot that with my left eye, given light loads that don't bust my jaw.

Great story though, thanks for the Bio on the general.

A well-drawn portrait and nice remembrance, Argo.

Thanks for sharing a bit of the General with us.

Regards,

JP