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- Aug 6, 2005
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I had what you would call a heritage long rifle for a while. Made by Peter Gonter in Lancaster County, it was a .50cal piece with no great amount of decoration, or fancyhoodshipness, but it was very elegant in a workmanlike way, from end to end - IOW, made to be shot. I reckon that I must have put around 80 - 100 shots down it before it was stolen - no doubt to order - at a show-and-tell gun show while I was in the chow line. The heavy-duty bicycle cable securing it was cut through, and it was gone, along with a contemporary powder horn.
To this day I wish bad things to happen to the thief, of a permanent nature, and wish to goodness that I hadn't waited until the last few months of ownership to shoot it, but such is the nature of getting even a genuine antique like that authorised here - in my case, eleven months.
If I had a great-looking piece like yours, I would probably had shot it smoothbored by now, had it been a rifle. It would be a feature of each and every guest day we ever held.
To this day I wish bad things to happen to the thief, of a permanent nature, and wish to goodness that I hadn't waited until the last few months of ownership to shoot it, but such is the nature of getting even a genuine antique like that authorised here - in my case, eleven months.
If I had a great-looking piece like yours, I would probably had shot it smoothbored by now, had it been a rifle. It would be a feature of each and every guest day we ever held.