Doublespeak

A Question of Balance

A gentleman was taking his wife to England and Scotland to shoot driven birds, and for the occasion he bought her an elegant pair of 20-bore Purdeys. To properly introduce her to the new guns, a visit to the Holland & Holland shooting school for a session with Chief Instructor Ken Davies (now retired) was arranged. The lady was petite, and during the lesson it was determined that the stocks needed to be shortened from 14" to 12-3/4". Because the driven shoot was scheduled on the heels of the lesson, Davies arranged to have the stocks shortened nearly overnight by one of his contacts.

When originally built at Purdey’s, the stocks had been hollowed nearly to the hand to achieve proper balance and compensate for the relatively short 26-1/2" barrels, so the stock-shortening work included not only cutting but also fitting a new plug in the hollow stock and checkering the butt to make the modification invisible. The stockmaker did a fine craftsmanlike job, but he left out a critical step in the process.

Unfortunately, the lady’s performance in the field with the shortened stocks did not match either the expectations for a pair of fine guns or the lady’s previously proven skills. Put another way: The guns shot fine, but the birds failed to fall from the sky. Because the gentleman had a relationship with Purdey, the company was approached to restock the guns.

Unfortunately, the estimated turn-around did not match the schedule of the couple’s future shoots, so they were referred to David for the task.

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