Saturday, January 24, 2009

An Affair with a Gun

A strange idea to the vast majority of people perhaps but to me this is no ordinary gun. A bespoken gun hand built to my specifications by the Grulla gun makers of Eilbar Spain. Built on a stock blank I selected, shaped to my dimensions, with hand engraved sidelocks, a skeleton buttplate, and sideclips, she is a 16 gauge, the perfect upland gauge in my eyes. Too pretty, some say, to carry into the grouse tangles with the briers, rocks, and steep terrain that make up good grouse cover in my Alleghenys, to me she was made to use. What ever scratches and dings she acquires will give her character and show future generations that she was owned and used by a grouse hunter and not safely tucked away in a gunsafe. To some a gun is only a tool, too be used for a month or two a year and then put away until the next hunting season comes along, But to me my little Grulla deserves more than that. When I pick her up she becomes an extension of my body. On warm summer evenings when I pull her from the gunsafe she becomes alive in my hands, and the memories of past hunts, the hits and misses, come flooding out of my conscious to bring a smile to my lips. With these pictures I share just a few of the many memories my little Grulla and I share.

















4 comments:

Gaetano said...

Wow the shotgun is a beauty but the land and the game is spectacular!

Amazing I'm in Philly and your area looks to be a 1000 miles away. Could you adopt me and take me hunting?

Happy New Year.

Greyphase said...

Hey Gaetano

Don't know about the adopting part:) but would take you hunting. Can't guarantee you get any grouse or woodcock but you will get plenty of brier scratches. From the looks of your blog you could sure make a tasty grouse or woodcock dinner.

Anonymous said...

Hey, I'm checking out your blog. It's really good. Gaetano wants to be adopted. That's pretty funny. Well, you do have an eye for photography. Keep up the good work. D.A.

Greyphase said...

Hey D.A. you lil knucklehead, glad you found time in your busy schedule to look at my little piece of the internet.

Rick