Somewhere I stated that if I just had the sense, I could have just stuck with my dad’s guns and been fine. No Brit bests, sure, but a model 21 duck gun, a Browning “Sweet Sixteen”, a .30-30 Winchester Carbine, and a 16 bore Model 12 (now owned by John Barsness) would have shamed no one. Hemingway had all of them. “Papa” shot a prosperous midwesterner’s good guns, rather than a Eurocrat’s – the only “best” he owned was a double rifle, and he hated it.The Boss pigeon gun that he was alleged to have shot himself with? Never existed. He did the deed with a Scott sidelock–nice gun but no Boss -I have owned two or three. The imaginary Boss was a dark romantic legend, Sylvio Calabi dug up a Scott sidelock, and Ernest’s son Pat assured me long ago that “Dad” never owned a Boss, implying he was too cheap!
*Steve emailed me this text and asked that I clean it and post it. He is not comfortable with the blog software, yet.
Sylvio Calabi dug up a Scott sidelock
I was unsure of what was meant here. It said lock. I changed it to sidelock.