Pennsylvania Game News - March 2009 - 50

about his craft. He incised small, detailed images into the metalwork of firearms, working slowly and painstakingly under a lighted magnifying glass — with no allowance for error. His talent was such that he could have been an artist in any media he turned his hand to, but this was his niche and he was top-notch. Together we leafed through a photo album of the custom engravings he had done on a wide variety of firearms. The engravings he had produced ranged from a traditional brace of setters on a side-by-side shotgun, to bugling elk on a big-game rifle, to dice and playing cards on a western-style revolver (I don’t remember the die throw or the gambler’s hand). Then the engraver showed me his current project. I don’t know if the firearm’s owner fancied Africa or had been there, but the picture on the big bore rifle’s receiver was of bull elephants, charging toward the onlooker through a cloud of plains’ dust. “Move your head to the side and watch the dust cloud,” the engraver told me. “It will change, like the dust is rolling.” I did that and he was right. He told me the illusion of motion was created by light reflecting from the varying angles he had cut into the lines of the design. Here was a nuance of the gun engraver’s art that I never knew existed. In my own firearm closets I don’t have anything as fine, or as expensive, as an antique muzzleloader or a custom-engraved modern rifle. My father-in-law did try his hand at checkering the stock of a gun, which my husband later inherited from him. The result personalized an otherwise assembly-line, not particularly valuable, rifle. For my husband, the checkering is a visible remembrance of his dad, which makes the gun truly priceless. The firearms in my house are more than inanimate objects. They’re part of the family, or rather they’re a family of their own, living at my house; sort of like having a pack of hounds. They don’t eat much, unless I count ammunition. They like to be 50 taken out of the kennel once in a while, to the range for a run, or into the woods and fields to chase game. Afterward, I check their paws for thorns, that is, give them a good going over and cleaning. I scratch them all behind the ears occasionally — remember them and shoot them — just to let them know I still love them. Most of us hunters and shooters seem to accumulate guns without trying. They seem to show up on the doorstep and we take them in, like a stray puppy. Through my evolving hunting interests, and with some gifts and inheritances, I own several rimfires, various centerfires based on the .30-caliber theme, muzzleloaders of the flintlock and inline breeds, shotguns in an array of actions and gauges, and a sprinkling of handguns. There are the tall and the short, the slim and the hefty. If pressed, I can call to mind and name each and tell a hunting tale about them. The other day my husband sat up with a “sick friend.” My husband was at his workbench, giving our hunting firearms their season’s end cleaning before storage. This meant more than a patch down the barrel and included some minor disassembly to get at moisture lingering from rainy and snowy days. When he showed up in my kitchen looking frustrated and reaching for the phone, I knew he had a case in hand that required additional consultation. Something on one of the guns wouldn’t go back together the way it was supposed to. With my lack of knowledge, I was better off not involved. The phone call brought a specialist on a house call, a buddy who is an expert amateur gunsmith. When I looked in, the “doctors” were puzzling over what could and should be done. I glanced in later and they were operating, working carefully with esoteric tools on the innards of the gun. After some anxious moments, they pronounced the patient well and whole again. As if in agreement, the shotgun’s forearm clicked smartly when the action was slid back into place. All was right again in the Steiner household. GAME NEWS

Pennsylvania Game News - March 2009

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pennsylvania Game News - March 2009