Becker Guns Information

birdawg · Post by **birdawg** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 10:12 am

Eightbore"s comments and my own curiosity about Becker guns has me wondering where I can get more information about the man and his guns.
I have read some of what there is in DGJ but I am missing a few volumes.

Does anyone have any suggestion or a boot in the behind for where to look for more?

loggy · Post by **loggy** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 2:44 pm

I have also tried to gather information about Mr Becker. I assume you have also read the McIntosh book and the references there. Nash Buckingham frequently mentions him in his books but never says much about the man. The DGJ articles are very informative. It seems that even there the facts about him change as more information becomes available. Even the spelling of his first name is not always the same. I have had the opportunity to handle one of his guns and, to me, that pretty much says it all.

eightbore · Post by **eightbore** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 3:57 pm

Dave Noreen probably has a prepared bibliography on Becker gun mentions and will no doubt respond to this request. There has been some good Becker information and pictures on this site but the archives are limited. Use the search function to access old threads here and on doublegunshop.com. I just looked and it is too bad we recently lost the pictures of Becker #120, my favorite Becker and the only one I can remember shooting.

Researcher · Post by **Researcher** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 5:09 pm

Sporting Classics -- Nov/Dec 1985, Volume IV, Issue 5, McIntosh's Firearms colum, pages 18, 20, and 22.

The American Shotgunner -- March 1984, Burt Becker's Magnum Force by Jim Cobb.

But, really, the best information is the bits and pieces Tom Kidd fed us in his various DGJ article.

John,

The Wife and I plan to hit the road tomorrow and begin working our way towards Las Vegas. See you there?

Dave

loggy · Post by **loggy** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 5:17 pm

David,
I will look forward to seeing you. Dave L said you might stop in Poky sometime. I would appreciate your comments-John
I

bbman3 · Post by **bbman3** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 8:34 pm

Becker's grandson somehow got me email address and contacted me a couple years ago. He wanted to find out more about his guns and i put him on to a couple od Fox collectors. He said he did not know until recently that his grandfather was a big time gunsmith! The family did not own any of his guns or tools. Bobby

birdawg · Post by **birdawg** » Sat Jan 12, 2008 9:56 am

Thanks for the leads everyone.

eightbore · Post by **eightbore** » Sat Jan 12, 2008 10:41 am

Several of the "becker" mentions in the DGJ Index and Reader will lead you to Becker articles with outstanding photos. Four references I'm using to design my Becker project gun are Volume 10, Issue 2, page 77; Volume 11, Issue 1, page 151; Volume 11, Issue 2, page 146; Volume 14, Issue 1, page 104. Becker #120 was available on this site and maybe the poster (our website administrator) of those pictures could repost them. 120 is a wonderful example of a conservative, high condition Becker, a great gun. Bill Murphy

birdawg · Post by **birdawg** » Sat Jan 12, 2008 10:48 am

Thanks Bill,
I have wanted to do something like I suspect your project involves but I have not come up with the raw material as of yet.
I do hope you keep us posted on the details of your project.
jess

eightbore · Post by **eightbore** » Sat Jan 12, 2008 5:47 pm

Some of the posters on this site (Silvers and Ken Hurst for example) have buried themselves deep in Fox projects and I have been drawn in by personal inspection of their great guns. My advice for raw material is to start with a low mileage gun even if it has finish issues, and don't let ejectors be a neccesity unless it really is a neccesity. A tight, lightly used early A is as good or better choice as a Sterlingworth. Early A Grades with bad finish and bad wood can be bought for a price similar to a Sterlingworth and have a Deeley forend release in non ejector models which the Sterlingworth does not have.

eightbore · Post by **eightbore** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 9:22 am

My Becker project gun has been committed to the action filer. This is only step number one. The Becker it will somewhat resemble in profile will be the unusual, possibly unique, Becker #2, minus the sculpting of the floorplate area. This great gun is described and pictured in DGJ 10-2, page 77. For those interested in Becker style project guns, here is the DGJ bibliography I used to remind me of what I was really attempting to achieve. 8-4, page 155. 10-2, page 77. 11-1, page 151. 11-2, page 146. 14-1, page 104. Additionally, I looked at 16-4, page 94 for some D Grade guns to add to the mix. The reference in Volume 14, issue one is the Senator Harry Hawes Becker 20 gauge duck gun. This gun is very similar in style to Becker #120, the Henry Bartholomew pigeon gun. Oddly enough, I was invited to shoot at Harry Hawes' duck club late this season. I wouldn't have known the connection had not Senator Hawes' picture been prominently displayed in the clubhouse. Imagine that I was drinking overproof Bourbon while sitting in the same chair in front of the same fireplace where Harry cleaned his pair of Becker 20s after a day on the Lower Potomac. This club is within pitching distance of the Bartholomew estate where Nash Buckingham and Marse Henry shot canvasbacks by the week. I've never noticed a Nash, Henry, Harry Hawes connection mentioned in Nash's writings, but I'm sure Bartholomew and Harry Hawes bumped into each other since both maintained offices within blocks of one another. Oddly enough, during the same era, my Dad also had an office within feet of the Investment Building, Henry Bartholomew's Continental Insurance Company office address. I can only imagine my Dad and Marse Henry meeting for breakfast at the Hot Shoppe across the street and discussing ducks and bird dogs over the Danish that Dad and I used to enjoy when I visited him at work when I was a pup.

birdawg · Post by **birdawg** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 10:05 am

Thanks for the update Bill. It sounds like you are blessed with a rich heritage in the heart of Fox land.
Personally from my background, having grown up in the central valley ranch land of the late great state of California I should be hunting the mdl21's that were our working guns. They were mostly Duck guns used to keep the geese from getting all of the winter wheat. I have a couple of them to remind me of those days and a 16 ga skeet like the one we used for collecting valley quail in the creek bottoms. Still unless you get into custom shop guns 21's are pretty consistent in their robust features.
My hunt goes on!
Jess

Silvers · Post by **Silvers** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 10:30 am

Bill, thanks very much for your recollections and the Becker references. Jess said what I wanted to very well. The only DGJ I have from your list is V14, Issue 1 with the Hawes-Becker 20 gauge waterfowl gun. That pic of the breeches on page 109 has been an inspiration to me since I first saw it in 2003. It sounds like you're in the "action filer's" cue. I had a deal going on an 2nd gen AE as a project gun but I've rethought that and am looking for a tight early A or AE instead. I heard of one yesterday and this foxhound is hot on its trail.

Jess, I agree with you on the 21's. Frank

DGKaas · Post by **DGKaas** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 10:30 am

My current "Becker Special" project HE (having been on "work release" from the now defunct prison of Andy's in Utica) is at Herr Bickel's shop aka "Gratz St. North". It is (or was) a well used early 32" full/full 3" 0 frame HE, now restocked in relatively modest Turkish to a straight grip with a XE checkering and a long ivory tipped splinter and genuine Silver's pad. The frame has been rebated and the top sculpted, set screw added to the top tang screw. It had a complete mechanical overhaul including a new rotary bolt prior to restocking. The barrels were re-struck to remove the sloppy factory work and unslightly lack of swamping at the breeches so typical of many HEs. When "Burt" Bickel is finished, the gun will go to Maitre Gournet for a custom XE pattern honoring Ho'ace Miller and the guides of Beaver Dam. Then on to Turnbulls for re-casing and nitre blue while "Burt" rust blues the barrels. Now that "Hogwell" has gone down the long lonesome road, with any luck, its replacement, "Ho'ace" will join Herr Bickel's ex-Bartholomew 32" 1 frame HE "Henry" and maybe even the D grade Becker on our annual trip to Beaver Dam in December and score a few "mal'lats". I may slip a couple of paper Western Super X 3" 13/8oz coppered #4s I've been saving just for the occasion...and then let "the Big Boss" know how they performed

eightbore · Post by **eightbore** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 11:39 am

Don, Hogwell lives within sight of my upper deck, across about three hundred yards of corn. He is far from "down a lonely road". When I hear a shot from that direction during resident goose season this fall, I will know what made the sound. I have no idea why you would sell such a conservatively constructed project gun. After all, an H is an H, no matter how many you own. You have reminded me, though, that it is high time I named my most recent project. The "naming" will be my project for this rainy day. Murphy