An excerpt…This past October, I visited my friend Morris Baker at his company in Pennsylvania, RST/Classic Shotshell Company. We were discussing writing and sporting art and shotguns and bird dogs . . . when his eyes lit up. He had that innocent look of a kid in elementary school who just remembered a stash of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies in his lunch bag.

“Wanna see Burt Spiller’s Parker?” he asked. His eyes sparkled for he already knew my answer. “I’ll be back in a minute.” (Burt Spiller wrote countless stories about New England upland hunting, including the book Grouse Feathers.)

Morris reappeared carrying Burt Spiller’s Parker VH 20. Several years ago, Morris bought the VH at an auction with far less fanfare than was associated with the selling of Bo Whoop. The cost of the Spiller’s gun was unceremoniously equal to the market value. No additional value was placed on the Poet Laureate of Grouse’s ownership, but there it was in my hands.