One for Beauty -- One for Duty

[bushmaster1313]

Kings of old had two wives.

The purpose the beautiful wife was to display and preseve her beauty as an adornment to the King.
She was not allowed to let pregnancy mar her beauty. The original trophy wife.

The purpose of the other wife was to bear the children of the King and raise an heir to the throne.

I am only allowed one wife, but I can have two trap guns.

My beautiful gun is a 1919 Baker Elite. Fully operational and it kills clay birds dead.
But I treat it gently to keep its beauty from fading:

















My duty gun is a 1927 Ithaca 4E Knick.
Not too shabby in the looks department.
But this gun is all business and I do not hesitate to put it through its paces:













Side by Side:




As I said:

One for Beauty -- One for Duty

 

[Tinpig]

Two beautiful and functional shotguns.
They remind me of the 1907 WW Greener my Dad left me. I don't shoot it much anymore, but we used it for upland birds, ducks, and skeet when I was a kid.



Tinpig

 

[Jack2427]

Two great ones! Congratulations.

 

[Dave McCracken]

Nice guns!!

Thanks for posting.....

 

[bushmaster1313]

More Side by Side:

 

[rbernie]

Wow - very nice indeed.

 

[Dave McCracken]

Thanks, those are some purty trap guns.....

 

[SwampWolf]

Nice to see a couple of real classics.

 

[bushmaster1313]

FYI
The pad on the Ithaca is a vintage Jostam take-off, $5.95 on eBay, refitted by Diamond Gunsmithing, who also cleaned and checked the internals.

The pad on the Baker is a new Silvers fitted over the old hard rubber Jostam sponge base which is nailed into the butt face.

The Ithaca does show some wear to the wood finish and it would look super with a fresh coat of lacquer. However, this tiger has earned its stripes and I plan on leavng it unmolested for the foreseeable future.

All who are Blessed to still be here on April 14, 2027, when the Ithaca turns 100, are invited to come and shoot it. It's a Tuesday.

The Baker turns 100 in 2019.
I think I will assign it an April 14 Birthday as well.

 

[P.shooter]

They both look like beauties to me.

 

[heeler]

What works of art,especially compared to the mundane black plastic things of today.
Thanks for showing those pictures.
You can even see the ducks eye on that old Baker.

It's guns like these that makes for a very good reason to own a quality gun safe because the chance of finding one of these in this sort of condition for a price close to reasonable would be slim to none.
Hang on to them!!

 

[xx78]

Both are beautiful guns. BTW, it's much cheaper to have two guns vs. two wives.

 

[huntershooter]

Couple of beauties.
Thank you.

 

[1KPerDay]

Wow! Nice. Thanks for posting.