Stan, Mr. Kelly sounds like the type of person that most people would like to have work on their doubles.
The person that comes to my mind and made a lasting impression on me was a gentlemen by the name of Bernie Liberati. He was not a gun smith but rather a collector of large bore guns, from 4 gauge down to 10 gauge. I got to meet him through a phone call, he said that such and such gave him my phone number and he wanted to know if I would make him some 4 bore choke gauges. I said I would be willing but he had no idea of what the gauges should be in size increments as to choke. He had some crude measurements and I started out by making him some aluminum plugs of different sizes that he could put on the end of a rod to put into the bores. This proved futile, so I told him I would come to his house and measure the bores of his 4 bore guns. He owned 10 of them, some single barrel and some double barrel from A. McComas to W & C Scott and Son, with a Holland and Holland, Roda and a T. Mullin 48" single barrel.
The bore sizes were from .910 of a Benjamin double to .948 of the McComas 48" barrel. We settled on Full at .875, Imp.Mod.,.890, Mod.,.905, Imp.Cyl.,.920. These would take care of most. He asked if I thought that this would be good and I said to him "you own more of these than probably anyone else, who is going to argue".
He wanted the gauges made out of brass, and I told him that they would be too heavy, he said they would look nice as he wanted to give them to friends that had 4 bores. My wife made holsters to hold them on your belt if you had the need to carry one.
He started developing some health issues and spent time in the hospital, came home and was doing so so, got worse and had to go back and was sent home as there was nothing they could do. He passed on but I will always remember him as a good friend and I hope he felt the same.
It was a nice relationship and he also belonged to the L.C. Smith Collectors Association and went to some of our shoots and the Vintagers Shoots. He also owned 13, 8 gauge L.C. Smiths and of these two were consecutive serial numbers Grade 4's of which there were only two made. He also owned quite a few Parkers.
He wanted me to shoot one some day and I doubt if I could hold one up.
A great person and I hope that he is up there shooting one of them.
Here is link to a site he and a few others formed. In the one picture he is second from the left, the first was his very good friend Jim Stahl. His son Bernie is next to him.
http://www.10gauge.com/photos.html
