Greenwich Report--BEST IN SHOW

[TOOL MAN]

Comrades,

Returned from the Grenwich show last evening. FOXIST is holding down the fort today, as both SILVERS and I had previously scheduled, family engagements.

Every member on this site should feel
a great sense of pride, for once again,the AHFCA
stole the show and erected a gorgeous array of Ansley's finest. If I heard it once, I heard it 50 times over; "...the best American guns in the room were over at the AHFCA booth......and none were for sale (LOL)!!!"

We were located over in "Amen-Corner", directly opposite where the PGCA, set-up in 2008. Unfortunately, neither they, nor the Smith boys, displayed this year and were sorely missed. Wouldn't it be great if in 2010, AHFCA, PGCA and LCSCA could all display in that corner of the room??

Greenwich is a fantastic venue ( albeit expensive) in that it's literally a 2 minute drive from the NEast's main conduit, I-95. Many of us were concerned with the very light turnout during the Fri. night preview, however when
Sat. morning arrived, the crowds were lined up, half way out the parking lot. It took me 10 minutes to make it to the booth, as the front hall was wall to wall humanity.

The one resounding sentiment, bouncing off the Greenwich hall was...."where are all the hi-grade guns"?? I like most, believed that with a depressed economy, where cold, hard cash is definitely king, that some of the collectors would be adopting, the flight to quality approach and converting some blued steel, into a more liquid asset. This was simply NOT the case. Unless I missed one, I saw nothing higher than a B grade Fox and a DHE Parker on the tables.. Yes, there were a few decent Sterly's and some small gauge V-grade Parkers (the best, a lovely 28b VHE, that interestingly enough, landed at the AHFCA booth for inspection) but none of the usual eye candy, ever materialized.

Other than that 28 ga Parker, the nicest Fox to walk into our booth, was a cherry, Gen-1, A grade ( 17,xxx) with a ton of CC , mirror bores and fiery trigger guard blue.
Ol' FOXIST broke into a cold sweat over that one. Something tells me, he will be sleeping in the kids room 'till around April....(haaaa-haaa "Plunk")

Allow me to digress but adjacent to our booth, lay a DH Parker that haunted several of us, including this accidental tourist, all weekend. She was a 32", 1901 vintage, (FS-Titanic barrels) with most unusual stock dimensions. She had a SG with a ton of DAH but a very high comb. When you held her away, it looked like a flintlock from the Reading School, with its characteristic "humpback" shape. The stock flowed into a Silvers pad, highly compressed and browned-out from 70-80 years of sitting upright in a safe. This gun whispered, "live-birds" all day long. Didn't our beloved "LEADER" shoot a 32" D-grade Parker, from that period??? Wouldn't that be the cat's meow....stranger things have happened, right???

I'm sure FOXIST will provide a more detailed report and no doubt, the F-grades and 32' Super-Fox's will come pouring out of the woodwork, at noon today!!!!!

In summation, the AHFCA was once again....BEST-IN-SHOW and despite a dismal economy, we are looking forward to our best year ever, with more events, an expanding membership base and greater member participation, than ever before.

YES........WE CAN!!!!!!!!

Happy New Year...........TOOLMAN

[fox-admin]

Great report, wish I was able to make it. Was the early A for sale or just walk in eye candy? Craig

[TOOL MAN]

Haaaaa.....better talk to "The Treas." Think the check
was signed before I had her halfway out of the case!!

TOOL

[FOXIST]

I am sorry to see the weekend come to an end! I had a great time at the show talking with old friends and some new "Fox Collectors". We picked up a few new members and had half a dozen take signup forms. I would like to thank all that stop to chat with us and for bringing some nice Foxes to look over! Many AHFCA members came by to say hello. I enjoyed meeting for the first time and talking to Lifetime member Robert Duffy.
I would like to give special thanks to Silvers,Tool Man,and Jim Malone for help manning the table and set up! also thanks to forum member "al" for allowing us to dispay his beautiful early 20 bore CE #200002 Wow what a gun!!!!. One gentleman brought in a very unusual SPE grade gun with lots of extra engraving and wood carving that is possibly the work of a Savage employee. We plan on doing more research on this one.
I had a grand time Saturday night with a few of the Parker guys up in the PGCA hospitality room. Good Scotch, double gun talk, show and tell. It just does not get any better. I was in good company with AHFCA members Morris Baker and Jim Malone. I would like to thank Ken Waite for allowing this Ole Fox to join in. I also met Ken's son Ken III, Daryl Middlebrook,Terry Turnbull (Doug's father) and Greg Miller.
Here are a few pics from the show.
Hey Tool Man I think I might as well start moving my clothes down the hall to the spare bedroom, this might get ugly.
Silvers Good Luck with that twenty bore ejector sterly. I hear those PA. grouse are heading for the borders with the news. Paul (FOXIST)


TOP TO BOTTOM XE 12. CE 20, SPE SPECIAL AND A GRADE 12

LEFT TO RIGHT TOOLMANS- DE 12, XE 12, STERLINGWORTH TRAP. J GRADE SINGLE TRAP

L TO R FOXIST, TOOL MAN , AND SILVERS

[waterman]

Hey Tool Man or Silver's that is a nice looking A grade 12 in the pic any idea of the owner? Donnie