The gun on the bottom was my grandfathers. A Baker 12 sxs. He was born in a log cabin along a river in the rural midwest in 1897. He hunted, did farm work, and anything possible to hustle and make money. He had a cheap 22 single shot that he used to kill all sorts pf smaller game that he often sold to the butcher in town besides family meat. He often bought partial boxes of 22 shells, full boxes were too expensive. He always stopped and looked at the Baker gun in the window of the hardware store. After some time, the hardware store owner gave him the gun. His production of game for sale increased substantially.
At one point he and his brother drove horses and wagons about 100 miles and shot ducks and geese on a larger river and brought the full wagons back to sell. One hustle when young was to buy sheep and summer them in Montana, selling them after the summer for profit. he did it 2 summers. One of those summers he encountered a black bear coming around a large rock, it was not friendly. He shot it with both barrels loaded with bird shot, knocking it down, ran around the rock and reloaded, to repeat several times until the bear was done.
He became successful in various business endeavors, lived in a larger town, yet still liked to hunt ducks and geese. Dad said his hunting clothes of choice were older wool dress suits, doubled up, old dress shoes with two pairs of socks and galoshes, and was wicked deadly on flying ducks, able to hit 2 coming in, reload and hit 2 more before a flight of them passed out of range. The gun says "Choke Bored" and is very tightly choked. I pulverized a pheasant once with it when it jumped really close and i forgot the head shoot it.
He never took very good care of it, it was a tool. Dad had it restocked, reblued and got him a takedown case for it. His dad used to just put it in the trunk of the car with no case to take it anywhere. He passed when I was very small, I never really knew him. I started shooting it when a kid with Savage 410 inserts, which pattern pretty good. I later had the chambers opened to standard dimensions, forcing cones lengthened some, had the barrel latch rebuilt, and a good pad put on it. I shot clays with it now and then when dad was into it, and hunted with it a few times. Mostly I just enjoy having it, it looks great in the cabin and is fun to use now and then.
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Originally Posted by MattyD380
