There's also the issue of British English vs American usage on this side of the pond. It seems to me that I've heard the term "keeper's gun" (I think possessive) in the UK. The description seemed to be applied to a fairly basic boxlock nonejector, I think always a 12 bore, with such a gun often being what a gamekeeper would own.
I swear, Larry, sometimes you are the master of making a pointless point outside the op's subject. But like the father said to the mom of the errant son, Mama, it's in 'im and it's got to come out." Smh...
JR
Larry made a perfectly valid point - when I saw the thread title I first thought it referred to low end gamekeepers' guns.
Apostrophes, LGF. Apostrophes. Not a one in the op's title of his thread or the thread's text. Pesky grammar, always causing problems for those who ignore it.
JR
Given that the very first definition for "keeper" in my dictionary is the British definition and that "keeper" as something one keeps doesn't come along until later . . . Had the OP said "guns that are keepers" to start with, that would have solved the problem. As a writer of books and magazine articles about guns and hunting for almost half a century, I try to make sure my usage doesn't leave room for misinterpretation. But even editors can mess up perfectly clear references from time to time. I once referred to a "tiling machine" (a machine that lays tile) in an article . . . and an editor, attempting to be helpful, changed it into a "tilling machine." A couple farmer friends said they'd call one of those a plow. So would I . . . and "tiling" wasn't a spelling error on my part.
I'm not sure if the "former professor" was a reference to me, but if so, English was not the subject I taught. I was a French instructor, and learned a lot about English studying foreign languages.
My favorite English misunderstanding example, which is clear if written but not necessarily so if spoken: "I'm going to help Jack off a horse."
Last edited by L. Brown; 02/14/24 08:38 AM.
