The Beauty of Weapons 1

Fall is in the air in the New Mexico highlands, and my hounds and hawk are restless, whining at the front door, or rowing wings in the quickening wind. You will be hearing more about them, I promise.

But a natural transition from the fluted points of prehistory is the beauty humans-- all right, mostly men -- have bestowed on their hunting tools.

I present you with photos of a rare and obscure English "Best" shotgun, a Griffiths, shaped and filed by hand to the tolerances of a particle of smoke, in Manchester in 1878. You can still buy a new London or Edinburgh or Birminghan Best, but it will take a couple of years and cost anywhere from forty to eighty thousand POUNDS. This one cost me less than $1500, including having the Damascus barrels re- finished by Chuck Webb at Briley.

This black and white photo from the late Geoffrey Boothroyd's Shotguns and Gunsmiths shows the Damascus pattern more clearly. We believe it is of my gun!

You have to study old guns. My old friend the Albuquerque rare gun dealer Ron Peterson offered me this one, or a comparable one, of similar age, by the famous Westley Richards. We both agreed that this one had better details and balance, but someone relying on "names" would have gone with the other.

It shoots light modern ammo as well as it did over 100 years ago, and I will open dove season with it. These things are made to last! I have handled a muzzle- loading gun made by Joseph Manton, the first maker of London Bests, that still worked; it dated from the 1790's. I am told some such still see action on the grouse moors of Scotland-- though I suspect only in good weather....