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Well, it's finally time to wrap up the saga of the restoration of my 12 gauge Lindner-made Charles Daly Diamond Quality model 275. What started as a un-shootable basket-case (although it looked pretty good) has finally come full circle and made it back to the duck marshes it was originally destined for when it left the bench in Herr Lindner's shop more than a century ago. Covid and it's resulting lockdowns and restrictions made getting this gun back into action a much more drawn out affair than I originally imagined but all is well now that it's gone BOOM and ducks have fallen.

There was a meeting of fine double guns over the last couple days as we hunted out of the famed Mud Creek Club on Lake St Clair. Pretty sure even former member Henry Ford would have been pleased to be using some of the guns on hand. Thanks to the kind invitation of AR15meister, Claudio and I joined Adam and his father to hunt the famed marshes of Lake St Clair, sandwiched between Detroit and Port Huron. With that kind invitation, it was a given the Daly would get the call but Adam is pretty keen on big vintage duck guns so he made sure Claudio brought a gun a few of you may remember from threads on this site now nearly a decade old....his big B grade Fox with the 32' barrels and that spectacular beavertail forend, if you can call it that. We just call it The Big B and, ten years after first seeing it, I still think it's the most beautiful double I have ever seen. Adam also brought his own, very fine 12 gauge SuperFox, recently restocked along with receiving new metal finishes by member Chris Dawe. It is a gun that deserves it's own thread. Adam's father Wally doesn't have quite the same enthusiasm for vintage doubles but he humoured us by bringing a very nice late 1950's (I think) Browning Superposed.

While the volume of ducks coming into the spread was a little thinner than we might have hoped (the weather was just too lovely) there were enough to keep us alert and watchful. The lack of waterfowl within range may have had something to do with the amount of laughter being generated in each of the two duckboats. But, as many of you know, it's not always about the limit and we all left yesterday having enjoyed a great time. Claudio made one shockingly good shot that had two big greenheads falling dead as stones from a single shot. By chance we all got a clear view of that event. Fittingly the first duck I dropped with the Daly was a nice Canvasback drake. Here are a few photos. There are more but I'm having some computer issues and will try to post when I get them problems worked out.

Thank you all for following along this adventure with me. I had hoped that, this group being who you are, you would enjoy seeing a start to finish restoration by someone as talented as Claudio. And I think I was right. You did like it. As I alluded to earlier in the year, there is a new project getting teed up. Hopefully sometime in 2022 we will start anew with this 12 gauge Daly's new companion, a Lindner made Charles Daly Diamond Quality model 275 20 gauge. I hope you will join Claudio and I for that one as well.

My view for a couple days:

Claudio on the right:

From left, me, Adam, Wally & Claudio:

View of the club from the canal.

I think this is pretty obvious: