Update 12th
January 2015
A very Happy New Year to you
all.
Ours was a quiet one shared
with a few family members but none the less enjoyable for that.
The Christmas period was very
different with a 10 hour dash up to the Isle of Mull to spend the week with
close friends. The weather was as one would expect: horizontal rain, bright
sunshine, snow, sleet and that was in the first few hours! What more could the Hebrides
throw at us? Well, more of the same actually!
Regardless, we had a lovely
time with excellent meals cooked by the hostess, bracing walks along the coast
and over hills, silly games with the ‘children’ (some aged over 50) and the odd
‘wee dram’!
Young Tilly and Moss the Delinquent
Labrador enjoyed the freedom to run unhindered, chase the odd rabbit and be
fussed by the real children. Only minor cloud was Tilly discovering the delight
of dead crabs on the beach, which she crunched up with relish, and rolling in
long dead fish! Once ensconced in front of a roaring fire the smell was
eye-watering and she was taken outside and given a very unwelcome bath!
My wife with Moss and Tilly on the hill, high above
our host’s cottage, looking north towards the isle of Coll
on the horizon.
As you may have heard, at the
time of writing the Hebrides and the jumping off point on the Scottish mainland,
Oban, is still without power after 3 days. This has been caused by powerful
storms that have trashed much of the Scottish west coast and are still causing
problems now 5 days on. I am just so glad that we are not still up there.
The weather is quite bad enough here.
We are fast approaching my next
US show, the Beinfeld Antique and Sporting Arms Show in Las Vegas. This runs
from 23rd to 25th January, overlapping for one day with
the Shot Show which is also in Las Vegas this year. This is very fortuitous
timing and I have high hopes of an excellent turn out of interested gun enthusiasts.
New stock guns that I will have
on display include:
Watson
& Bros 28g hammergun, a really cute gem;
FT
Baker 12g RUL hammergun, damascus and old French walnut, lovely;
Another
28g hammergun, this time by William Evans from Purdey’s;
Henry
Atkin 12g Pigeon Gun with 30” steel barrels and 5 Teague Thin-wall chokes;
Also on display will be:
20g
Stephen Grant sidelever SLE, cased, totally gorgeous;
E
Woods 12g RUL Wildfowling damascus hammergun with 3” nitro proof;
T
Murcott 12g damascus toplever hammergun, great damascus;
Perkes
Adams 12g BLE, lots of original colour and lovely wood;
H&H
16g Royal with 30” TIG sleeved barrels, built as a Paradox, rebarrelled as
a shotgun;
Charles
Ingram 12g SLE, great replacement wood and lovely damascus barrels;
And last but certainly not
least a H&H
Perkes action 12g SLE, rebarrelled by the Makers.
Well, I hope I will see many
of you in Las Vegas.
Enjoy your guns and shooting wherever
you are,
Very best wishes,
Toby Barclay