Burt Becker

[farmeredcuneo]

Does anyone have any references outside of Nash Buckingham's notes and McIntosh's book about Burt Becker and his work as a gunsmith?

[OH Osthaus]

I believe there have been a couple articles in the Double Gun Journal about Mr Becker and his guns. -

[loggy]

There aren't any books on Becker that I know about. He seems to appear here and there in articles about Foxes. You might want to start with the search engine in the upper right corner of this website.

[farmeredcuneo]

Thanks for the replies. Does anyone have a reference to the aforementioned magazine articles?

[Researcher]

Various Becker articles have appeared from time to time. Tom Kidd's articles that deal with Beckers in The Double Gun Journal are in Volume Three, Issue 4, on Becker No. 119; Volume Seven, Issue 2, covers Fox/Beckers No. 33050 and 33051; and Volume Ten, Issue 2, The Second Becker. Bill Headrick's article on Senetor Hawes Fox/Becker DE-Grade 20-gauge Wildfowl gun 203660 is in Volume Fourteen, Issue 1.

Jim Cobb's article "Burt Becker's Magnum Force" was in The American Shotgunner, March 1984. McIntosh devoted his column in Sporting Classics, Volume IV, Issue 5, November/December 1985, to Becker.

[eightbore]

You would be wise to add Becker discussion from this site to your magazine search. Some posters here know a bunch about Becker, and some are the authors of the magazine articles about Becker. There is nothing wrong with being late to the party. Some who know or knew the most were rather late also.

[farmeredcuneo]

I appreciate the comments that are being made here as I am someone who is just becoming passionate about the guns and the people behind them. I would hope that anyone who is knowledgable about Mr. Becker would kindly share that information with me and others who are not. Thanks Eightbore for you insight and I plan on doing just that. If someone would like to contact me away from this forum, please feel free to do so knowing that your time and knowledge will not be wasted.

[Silvers]

As one who has written here often in the past, I predict you won't get too much in the way of a Cliffs Notes "instant pudding" version of Becker lore. I may be wrong on that, time will tell. Most of the folks registered here seem to be lurkers or those looking to get information, not those who will take time to share it themselves. And of those who do make time to answer involved questions, they must balance that effort against time to do other things, and the likelihood they won't get more than a few thank you's even though hundreds of users may read/benefit from their work. Also their info is available gratis to the whole world and pirates sometimes copy/paraphrase the text and/or pics, and represent same as their own research & work on other sites and even in publications. Net, it seems the more involved the question the less likely it is to get a lot of data here on the public forums.

You might consider joining up to the AHFCA as other passionate folks have done. There are phantom forums here available only to members of the Fox Collectors. I did a search of the member forums this morning and there are currently > 75 more posts there with the word "Becker" than available in the public forums. Some of them have pictures of Becker guns. Another suggestion is to participate in S x S Shoots, Events and Shows where the Fox Collectors have a presence, and be able to talk your interests with other passionate members who can help with tidbits of information.

Of course these are all personal opinions and I intend them to be helpful.

Silvers

EDITED to correct typos and grammar. I wrote in haste earlier today.

[eightbore]

Farmeredcuneo, Silvers has some very valid points. There is much information out there. After you attain AHFCA membership, a good project would be to do a search on all of those posts about Becker, print them, and compile them into a research file. A second project could be to search all Headrick and Kidd articles for mention of Becker. The Double Gun Journal has an index of articles and subjects that extends to Volume 14.

[eightbore]

Double Gun Journal issues after volume 14 must be searched by manual means, not a big deal.