doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Should Have Known Better:

As with many gunowners/hunters/collectors etc. that enjoy their "toys" I have had a number of guns go through my hands. Now in my "later" years thinking back I realize that of all the guns I owned (some of my own creation) and sold, ONE stands out as the gun I should never have parted with. This particular rifle was a custom on a Husquavarna ( spelling ? ) Mauser action in .300 Weatherby Cal. in the shop of Elwood Epps, of Clinton Ont. Great gun that should have stayed in my cabinet - I didn't need to part with it, but did. Elwood was a great believer in the .300 Wea. as the ultimate moose rifle and the .303 British for everything else. Reading his catalogue reminded me of Herters. I would like to hear and I'm certain other members would too, of the "ONE that got away" from the members willing to share "reminisce" a story. --- John Can.

Ah, only one...? sigh. Many years ago there was a glorious like-new Holland & Holland bolt rifle built on an 1892 Steyr action and chambered in .375 2-1/2". By no means the most expensive or modern of rifles (but glorious nonetheless) and the one that always comes to mind when I think of the ones that got away.

John,
a couple years ago, a friend offered a near perfect SIACE Superlight 28g to me for peanuts. I took it home and even shot a round a skeet with it. 'Couldn't hit well with it due to the comb being a bit high. I passed on it and a member/dealer here bought it and sold it. I should have bought it and bent the stock.

It's too nice a day here in NY to go into this. Maybe Tuesday when the weather is upposed to turn.

In the shop of FRED WELLS, was a .375 H&H built by Holland and Holland on a Brevex action. Moon reflecting folding front sight,
Three leaf folding and regulated leaf rear sight. The receiver ring had the most fantastic full mane lion engraved. The floor plate a Daga bull cape buffalo, standing broad side. All done in fine rust blue.

This was more than thirty years ago and I still feel the rifle in my hands.

I got a Winchester 1885 Hi-wall for $65 dollars from a garage sale on the Lac du Flambeau reservation in Wisconsin in 1974. It was complete and in very good mechanical condition except for a trashed bore and the usual sliver of wood off the side of the forearm, and faded case coloring on the reciever. It was a .32-20 WCF (NOT a .32-40) with a 30" #3 barrel. At that time, I didn't know about relining the bore of a single shot rifle and so I let it go in a trade for an S&W Kit Gun that I also wanted. I've often thought how much fun that old cannon would have been with a new relined bore. Talk about a recoiless rifle.... Anyone seen a decent Hi-wall for under a thou recently?

Steve, I'm also a fan of the 2 1/2" "Flanged" ctg. I have an SMLE that I had converted by a rebore to that caliber and sporterized with a Fajen stock and a 5 shot magazine. Great woods rifle.

Oh yeah, and there was that 30" 20g VHE straight stocked Parker that Jim at Ivory Beads offered to me at 2600 a few years ago...what was I thinkin?

Oh yeah...I remember those...the thought of selling them is seared into my brain as if by a cattle branding iron...

The one and only Newton Leverbolt...From Bill Brophy...to Bruce Jennings...it went by for $1100, I didn't make $1...in fact I lost money in long distance telephone charges...when Bruce died, I heard it was for sale for $100,000...I don't know if that's what Mrs. J ultimately got for it, but I think this level of brain damage will be hard beat by any future posters...Elwood was green with envy, as he was a BIG Newton (Flues) collector like the rest of us...sorry they are all gone, and I miss them all...not a shark in the lot
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a caplock Lefever over under...I sold it at the Alexander gunshow to one of Jerry Swinneys friends for $550 or $600
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only the highest grade (known) Sedgley turnbolt. It was a Mauser actioned 7x57, lavishly engraved by Kornbrath, with exibition wood...sold it to another NYS Arms Collector member for $1500
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A fully engraved, boquet & scroll, circassian stocked, Darne, marked "L. Fraunstaufer, Mannheim" for $550...Tony Galazan stopped me at the Cleveland OGCA gunshow and asked if he could see the gun...he didn't know that I knew who he was...I would have sold it to him on the spot if it wasn't for what he said to me...as I handed him the gun, he said/asked "is it a foriegn gun?"...I think the only reason I didn't address his shark behavior, is because I was foolishly interested in seeing if his character would sink any lower...I refused to talk "turkey" and moved on with my gun...

John, you don't happen to live west of Toronto do you? If so, I've got something to tell you...there are some great guns sleeping around that area...it's too difficult for me to buy them and bring them across the Peace Bridge unless they are pre- 1898...

Yes Robert I do live west of Toronto in the Historic Town of Petrolia (near Sarnia). I had the pleasure of talking with Elwood on several occasions - interesting man. I run across a few guns I would like to own if the lack $ weren't in the way. I have a contact that buys and sells a lot of great guns. He specializes in Winchester Hi-Walls and has about "40" as we speak. If anyone has a particular "firearm" they are be looking for feel free to Email me at john.snopko@sympatico.ca and I will keep an Eye out for you. --- John Can.

I let go a 7 X 57 set-trigger pre-war Oberndorf Mauser sporter that a Canadian regimental sergeant-major "liberated" from a German baron's assets on the Dutch-German border and traded to the regimental chaplain who brought it home to Nova Scotia. It broke my heart when a really good gunsmith drilling for a scope mount had a really bad day. A perfect rifle of craftsmanship, utility, precision of the highest order was no longer a perfect rifle for me. I let it go and wouldn't want it back. There's a hole in it that shouldn't be there.