doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Sporting Shot and Petersen Collection at NRA

I guess I am trying to kill two birds with one stone, but I have two thing to talk about. The first one is for Sporting Shot (see left) has a nice link for a article concerning a Model 21 that was re-worked. It is entitled: Dad's Old Gun, TheOdyssey of a Classic 21. This concerned the final work that was performed on it. This included polishing the action and the barrels and blueing done by Adny Wojtowycz, engraving by Pauline Muerrle, and stockwork done by Wenig. Everything came together in a very nice package. The next one concerns the Pedertsen Collection of fine guns at the NRA museum. I went there, last Saturday, and I thought I had died and gone to Heaven. The collection of fine handguns, rifles, and shotguns is incredible. They had magnifying lenses mounted over the sideplates of some of the Italian doubles so you could see the engraving. Three of the shotguns belonded to Robert Stack: two Parkers and a Purdey side by with a hydro coil stock. It was absolutely incredible. Hope you get a chance to see it.

If I lived in Centreville, I'd be at the NFM every day. Those of you who like smallbore shotguns owe yourself a trip to see Robert Petersen's guns. The donation for the Petersen room is 450 items, not including the earlier donation of the Invincibles and other Parkers.

Just moved from the Left Coast to the Eastern Shore. Looking forward to my first trip to NRA

Colin, you mentioned Robert Stack and his name brought back some old memories.

When I was a boy in the 1960s, we had neighbors, an older couple, who used to look after my brothers and me sometimes. In their home, the wall were lined with photos of them with people like Robert Stack, Clark Gable, Bogart and others. A veritable who's who of Hollywood from the Thirties and Forties.

While I was told the reason for the photos at the time, I only really understood it much later. For those older waterfowlers among us, the couple used to manage Jimmy Robinson's Sportsman's Lodge at Delta Marsh and saw a parade of celebrities come through over the years.

Hard to imagine much of Hollywood going duck hunting these days.

Gable and Gary Cooper, both, liked to go hunting. Cooper shot a Winchester Model 21 and I believe that Carole Lombard bought a Parker for Clark Gable. Nice. Gable and Lombard used to go duck and goose hunting in the San Joaquin Valley. I remember seeing a picture of Stack and Gable that was taken in the mid to late 50s. They were discussing the virtues of a Winchester Model 12 skeet gun. It was the gun that trap and skeet shooters shot then. It was a different world back then.

This brings back some memories. Roy Rogers and Dale Evans were also both hunters. I also remember Roy showing off a well used Winchester Model 12 he'd bought from Clark Gable.
I think there was also a Hollywood group of trap shooters that included Robert Stack.
Jim

The addition of the Petersen collection has really taken the museum up a couple of notches. I've been through the museum twice. The first time was a two years or so back, and I hate to say it, but I came away not especially impressed - lots of guns but a lack of focus and not as many truly spectacular or unique pieces. That has changed. The "Petersen" guns have really added another dimension to it. Some really interesting pieces from many/most of the big makers - Purdey double rifles, Italian bests, high-grade American doubles, and on and on. Really worth a stop for the doublegun enthusiast.

Some more info concerning Roy Rogers. I remember reading in one of my dad's Guns Magazines, back in the early 60s about Hollywood actors and actresses who like to shoot and included. That included Gary Cooper, Clark Gable, Bob Stack, Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, and Greer Garson. The book on the Winchester Model 21 has a picture of Roy Rogers at the factory, sometime in the 60s, talking with the head of the Custom Shop. He was having a Model 21 built. I was in Batstow, Ca. (armpit of the state of California), visitng my in-laws for Christmas of 2000. My wife and I drove to Victorville, as that is where his museum was. I saw a Merklel over and under and a few other guns, but no Model 21.

The Roy Rogers gun collection recently sold at auctions. The catalogs were and maybe still are available on the net. You will probably find his Model 21s in these catalogs.