I agree with RJ 100%.. a review of a number of guns well outside our spending limits can get a little old.. but the story of a piece of shotgunning history with some questions left unanswered is always interesting. I'd like to see more on this story.. maybe just a link of the auction details when they come around..

PS Phil- I received a phone call from the History Channel's Top Shot on Friday. Sounded very good but just had a couple questions. I sent them some things that should help my case and I believe I'm supposed to hear by the end of the day today if I'll be going to LA for final casting.

I backed over my Remington 870 Super Mag a few years ago while turning around in a muddy parking area. I had left it leaning against the back bumper while removing muddy waders. Undamaged but dirty, I still hunt with it.

Hardy a Bo-Whoop story, but almost lost a new $312 shotgun. Keep those good stories coming. I can hardly afford to pay attention these days, but still enjoy a good read!

I'm glad you guys aren't bidding because when I buy it it's going in the safe right next to my Mossberg 500. LOL

I don't leave my long arms leaning against anything except their slots in my safe. I'd never lean one against a vehicle, fence, table, tree, or anything else.

That sure is a pretty shotgun!

I agree with Beekeeper, I enjoy reading about guns that cost more than my college tuition. I'll be very interested to know what this fetches.

I will be near "Buckingham Flats" with my own BO-Whomp 3 1/2"Mag this time tomorrow. Sunshine and cold in the woods, should be a good day. The days of parking your car and wading into the woods is just about over. Everything nowadays is gadget and equipment driven. The point system just about ruined interest in waterfowling for years. Reading about the glory days of "De Shootinest Gent'man" kept up my interest. The modernday shooting sportsman can also thank Henry Ford for opening up opportunities in getting to hunting locations with affordable transportation. Theres no way to replace being there. Most of the flooded timber is gone since Nash's day, thanks to the Corp of Engineers and farming practices of the mid-20th Century. Now if you are able to afford it you make your own flooded timber ala Duck Commander. Public grounds and NWR System is our best hope for future hunting grounds. Now if I get to go a half dozen times a year I've done well.

Interesting story! One of my father's friends, long since deceased, laid a Model 12 next to him as he ate lunch in North Dakota. He drove off without the gun, came back and never could find it.

Last fall while hunting doves in Montana, a fellow in my party laid a $1,200 double in a grass field, walked to his pickup to refill his water bottle, then couldn't locate the gun. My wife and her friend scoured the field with the guy and found the gun just as I arrived!

When I was a youngster in the early '60s I remember an older fellow in our deer hunting party laid his .30/06 on a two-track during lunch. Somebody drove over it and broke the stock in half. Now, this guy had a hook for a left hand and a ring on the stock to accommodate the hook. He roared off into Mandan, ND (about 15-20 miles) and incredibly, was back before dark with a different stock on the rifle and the ring installed!

I never lay a gun down on the ground, never lean it against a vehicle, never leave it in a sabbard on a horse. Doing so is asking for trouble.

How was it found?

I would wager that since the item was not technically stolen but rather lost or abandoned, the statute of limitations has long since passed for this relic in most any jurisdiction. If this is a problem, what about the looted mummies of Eqypt? Were they lost or abandoned by their owners or simply stolen?

After looking at dealer prices on firearms last week I'll be counting my pennies for just a regular gun. Interesting story about Mr. Buckingham’s shotgun, keep them coming.

I don't mind you guy’s writing about guns that we can't afford. We all like to window shop! There may also be a plus for us. Maybe the gun companies will pay attention to our rude remarks... Hopefully the dollar will catch back up to the Euro and the Italian guns will come back down a bit...

That is what I call a shotgun with character. If only it could talk we could ask. Where have you been and what have you been doing.
A few years ago The water was very low in pool number 4 at Cheyenne Bottoms Waterfowl
Refuge. Billy D and I found a rusty Remington 870 in the mud near one of the permanent blinds. We left it there for the next guy.

Interesting story, would like to hear more as well.
Good luck SD.

I lean my guns against anything -- except for a vehicle. In WA State, a loaded longarm leaned against the vehicle is the same as a loaded longarm "in" the vehicle which is a fat ticket... And since the officer cannot tell if it is unloaded by just looking, he will always stop if there're guns leaning on the car.

I've lost lots of things in my lifetime, but never a gun!

An hour of driving later, I once discovered that I'd dropped my cell when getting into the car after a heavily armed walk in the woods (aka "hunting"). Drove back and found it laying where it fell -- all in one piece with no tread marks on it!

im rewriting my christmas list

I remember reading about fine, storied, and amazingly expensive guns and thinking, "Someday I'm gonna own ALLLL of them". Well, I think it's safe to say that won't be happening, but it's still fun to think about that.

Does anyone know where the gun was at all those years?

Any lawyers out there who can explain about possession being 9/10ths of the law and how statutes of limitations may apply to to the owner of this firearm?

I think most of us don't mind reading about guns we can't afford any more than Mr. Petzal's occasional inclusion of a picture of a beautiful woman we can't have. Life would get pretty boring without being able to dream about having things that are well out of our reach.
On a different note, Mr. Bourjaily, you have not finished your job as an esteemed member of the media until you come up with the rest of the story concerning where this gun has been all this time.

If I had the money I would bid then put it back up!

duckcreekdick,
You hit the nail squarely on the head regarding lack of honesty.
Forty years ago,I was hunting Alaskan Brown Bear. The guide and I came to a water crossing, the guide explained that a year earlier while crossing on a fallen log his client took a tumble into fast moving current and lost his rifle, not to be found despite a long search. While the guide was talking I noticed something moving in the current. We got a stick and pulled, low and behold what I had seen was the rifle sling attached to the sunken 300 H & H. It was ruined, but we sent it to him and he really appreciated being reunited with his old rifle.

I too will be interested in learning about "the rest of (Bo-whoop's)story." But, for those who seem to prefer used guns, don't we all think about each scratch and nick on the used firearms we purchase? I just bought my first two side by sides from a neighbor who restores beat-up double shotguns. One is a real beauty, a Belgium 16 ga. brought back to as-new condition while the other is a real fixer-upper imported by Paul Jaeger, a custom rifle manufacturer from Eastern PA that I plan to to work on myself.

I have to plead guilty of leaning rifles and shotguns against trees, but not vehicles, PA also has a law against leaning a gun against a car. Even unloaded I believe. But if I see a tree with nice rough bark or a Y to lean it in and I need both hands for something I do lean it there, figure it's better than laying the gun in dirt or snow. Bad enuf the butt has to get dirty, why get the whole thing muddy or snow covered if you can avoid it?

Be a good stoty for F&S so I can take and read it as I want....

Delightful subject...couple of comments: one, Zermoid is right--Pennsylvania frowns mightily on leaning a firearm against a vehicle, and they are correct. Nash Buckingham’s “Bo-Whoop” shows that it is a good habit to break.

Two...I like it that Buckingham hunted with this beautiful piece for 20 years, and did not lock it a safe somewhere...and that may be where it is headed, now. Wouldn't it be great to meet someone in the marsh somewhere, and see the venerable old 12ga. Fox cradled in his arms?

We wouldn't mind hearing the story, either, if it is worth the telling....??

Blue

This is a story of lost and found ... not stolen.

Phil-
Keep us posted with this interesting story. I'm wondering about the provenance, and what "auction block" it will be auctioned at in March?

Buckingham put ads in the paper, and his friends and the police looked hard for the gun and never found it. He had anohter made just like it (Bo-Whoop II) except with a straight grip.
And yes, this gun was designed and bored to shoot Winchester magnums. Gunsmith Burt Becker of Philadelphia, the most famous barrel doctor of the day, bored the gun specifically for the Winchester ammunition.
When I find out the rest of the story, I will post up again.

I can't spell or type,but will be a cold day you know where when I cought up (if could afford it) that kinda $ for a used gun period.I will just use my Sterlingworth and Cooper in l6 and 12-last but not least my 410 Stevens had for 35 yrs, never fired and be happy. But if you can afford go for it. With that kinda $ I could go west several times and live it up. Better yet, I'd buy a parcel of land with a comfy Cabin and stay till I froze or close to it. Been west many tims, but never in erly spring, be nice to go and just look and maybe hunt a few coyotes, foxes and a Cougar or two. We all wish for a lot which is find, but sometimes we get carried away with our WANT's. Those old trusty Stevens/Savage/Sears do a good job on birds even today.

Not being a smart Ass, but when and who made the first Henry Bolt gun and what caliber? Also, did Henry ever make a handgun?. I found a 44-40 Oct. bbl to match my Uberti 44-40 handgun, but can;t just yet. Think Benelli imports them from Italy at about l500.00 . I see to many guns on this Bog, gonna have to look and read the war between Leno and Obran, I'll pit my $ on Leno winning his time slot as NBC rating already droped 30 % with the what-evr you call him, surely not a host.

No kidding Buckstopper! Phil certainly knows how to flood some timber. There's a video on their site, www.duckcommander.com , that has some great scenes showing off their land. It's pretty good stuff.