Pennsylvania Game News - October 2021 - 40

leaves and branches, and the comings
and goings of raccoons and birds. A
small breakfast table with two straightbacked
chairs remained in the kitchen.
The other rooms were empty; their
hardware and doors unremarkable. He
salvaged a primitive hand-hewn mantlepiece
from above the fireplace and all the
Victorian post brackets from the porch.
Next to the house, he recovered some
decorative wrought-iron fencing delineating
a remnant flower garden, or a pet grave
or two. That thought made him feel a bit
uneasy, as if by removing the fence, he
had freed what was interred there.
Curious, Tom took a walk up through
the woods. It was prime bird cover, and
he hadn't gone far before he flushed a
grouse. Another drummed in the distance.
At the top of the hill, he walked across a
flat until he reached a great expanse of
fields. No wonder the birdhunter lived
here, he thought.
B
ACK HOME IN HIS workshop, he
sorted through the box. There were
several books on training pointing dogs
and half a case of paper shotshells. Inside
an envelope was a bill of sale for an English
setter from a kennel in Somerset. The
birdhunter's name was Samuel Hartmann.
He found a photo of Hartmann sitting
on the porch steps with his dog, gun, and
two ringnecks. The setter was mostly
white with wispy gray patches. Written
on back of the photo: Sam and Smoke
- October 31, 1959. A Halloween day
double!
A double-gun enthusiast, Tom was
delighted to see that the shotgun was an
early Fox Sterlingworth with 26-inch barrels
that were choked improved cylinder
and modified. It was a 16-gauge with
extractors and double triggers that would
fit nicely between his 20-gauge Parker and
40
12-gauge Winchester Model 21. The surface
rust showed no pitting and the action
locked up tight - no wiggle, no wobble, on
face. He would have his gunsmith give it a
complete mechanical evaluation, then reblue
the barrels and case-color the action.
Tom ran an oiled mop through each
barrel several times, and the polished
bores glowed. The busted stock was
another story; but he had the broken
piece to use as a pattern, which he could
duplicate exactly, then give it a handrubbed
oil finish and fine checkering. This
time, though, instead of using field-grade
walnut, he'd make a spectacular stock of
Circassian walnut with flowing figuring
often referred to as " smoke and shadow, "
which describes the dark streaks of shadowy
figuring that gradates and blends into
the background, like wafting smoke.
The shotgun was completed in late
October. It would have been finished
earlier, but as a last thought, and a tribute
to Sam Hartmann and Smoke, Tom had
a setter pointing a pheasant engraved on
one side of the receiver, and on the opposing
side, a ruffed grouse rising in front of
Shadow. The shotgun weighed just over 6
pounds and handled and shot like a dream.
He couldn't wait for the Halloween pheasant
opener next Saturday. Grouse and
woodcock already were in.
T
HE FORECAST CALLED for
scattered showers, but he could tell
it was going to be one of those fickle
autumn days when the weather changes
frequently. Hunting hours started at 9 a.m.
on the opener, which gave Tom time to
deliver Ben's desk chair on the way.
" Trick or Treat, " greeted Tom as Ben
answered the door.
Ben was overjoyed with Tom's
masterful restoration work on the
chair, but stunned by the beauty of the
Pennsylvania Game News - October 2021

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