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Pine Creek/Dave
PostPosted: Tue May 31, 2022 1:15 pm  Reply with quote



Joined: 17 Mar 2017
Posts: 2786
Location: Endless Mountains of Pa

Gentlemen,

Having just read a nice article in the Project Upland Magazine titled Guns Worthy of their Game, by Jay Dowd. The story centered around GBE's Upland Shooting life book. The author is from a much younger generation of hunters and almost put the book down because he thought GBE was snooty & condescending. However after gaining more experience Grouse & Woodcock hunting, he came around to much of GBE's thinking.

GBE impressed the author and he eventually purchased a good SXS double gun to Grouse & Woodcock hunt. What the author failed to understand was the GBE never owned a 16 gauge double gun. The real gun worthy of his Ruffed Grouse pursuits. However after using my Grandfather 16 gauge Silver Breech L.C. Smith and shooting his 1st true double on Quail with it, GBE started looking for a similar bird gun. Unfortunately he never found what he was looking for, and continued using his 12 gauge guns for many years. Eventually he ended up with 28 gauge AYA #4 gun, however this was much later in his hunting life, when he absolutely needed to carry the 28, because of his injuries and age.

Our family has a Legacy of Grouse guns that started way before I was born, in our family the Legacy runs long on 16 gauge SXS double guns, mostly L.C. Smith 16 gauge guns, that I am now the care taker of. Although GBE owned a fantastic Purdey double gun, it was a 12 gauge gun, modified to fit him. Beautiful double gun for sure, I got to walk with it in the field where GBE learned to bird hunt around Uniontown, Pa.

Having learned my Grouse hunting from my Father & Grandfather, I was taught to use the gun most worthy of gunning Grouse, according to my Father and Grandfather, that gun is a 16 gauge SXS double gun, either an American Classic or a best German gun. GBE did learn a lot about Grouse hunting and did a great job writing about it, however he did not own the gun most worthy of his Grouse hunting pursuits. He got to use one for most of a day, and desperately wanted to acquire one, he could never find a 16 gauge gun he liked and I would not sell him my Grandfather gun. GBE passed away never owning his ultimate Grouse Gun, some do argue that his father gave him what could have been his best Grouse gun, a 20 gauge Fox Sterlingworth, that he traded when purchasing his 12 Fox Sterlingworth gun.

all the best,

Pine Creek/Dave
L.C. Smith Man

Two Classic American 16 Gauge double guns, worthy of taking Grouse & Woodcock.
L.C. Smith 16 Gauge Silver Breech, below the 16 Gauge Parker DHE above.


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