Snapshots
The company will continue to offer fittings for bespoke guns from the heart of Manhattan, along with an impressive collection of new and second-hand sporting guns and rifles, both by Holland's and other makers.
For more information, contact Holland & Holland, 10 East 40th St., Suite 1910, New York, NY 10016; 212-752-7755; www.hollandandholland.com.
John Ormiston, a former director of Holland & Holland, has been named the Chairman of E.J. Churchill Group, Ltd., which, in addition to the eponymous gunmaking firm, operates a shooting grounds outside of London and a sporting group that offers wingshooting travel to destinations in the UK and around the world.
Ormiston is an English gun expert and oversaw Holland's sporting operations for many years. Churchill's intends for Ormiston to focus on expanding the company's business in the US and Russia, according to a press release.
Churchill's also has announced that it has taken on Alastair Baxter, former chairman of the London fishing and outdoor clothing store Farlows, as a consultant. Baxter will help the firm with its retail business.
The sage grouse population continues in a worrisome decline, down from a historic high of 2 million to as few as 250,000 today. A new report by the Western Assoc. of Fish and Wildlife Agencies has offered the first full analysis of the Greater and Gunnison subspecies across its entire range, which includes 11 Western states and the southern tips of three Canadian provinces. The 700-page report is seen as the foundation for efforts for sage grouse recovery; it came close on the heels of a USFWS decision that listing the birds as "endangered" merits further study.
The North American Grouse Partnership-founded in 1999 as a citizen advocacy group largely in response to the decline of Western grouse species-welcomed the report as "the pivotal work on which the future of the species will turn," according to Dr. Steve Sherrod, the NAGP's president. Yet the group hopes for immediate, on-the-ground conservation efforts and would also like to avoid the need for-and implications of-an Endangered Species Act listing. Toward that end, the NAGP is working on a grouse management plan to develop effective conservation strategies.
As found by the fish and wildlife professionals, among the threats sage grouse populations face are: loss of sagebrush habitat to expanding human development and livestock grazing, highway traffic, towers, and energy exploration and development.
Among the recent (and most appreciated) additions to our bookshelves is the 25th Anniversary Edition of the Blue Book of Gun Values, by S.P. Fjestad. This thorough tome-this year with more than 1,800 pages and 250,000 firearms prices-again illustrates why it is truly the bible of gun trading in this country.
The 64-page full-color guide to the Photo Percentage Grading System has been revised and expanded to include excellent descriptions of every percentage of condition for pistols, revolvers, rifles and shotguns and by itself offers a fairly complete basis for understanding condition's effect on value determinations. Among the interesting examples of shotguns illustrated: A 98-percent-condition L.C. Smith Field Grade Long Range Waterfowl 12-gauge, new in the box; three comparative Winchester Model 12s in 50-, 60- and 70- to 75-percent condition; and a 20-percent Parker GH Grade that's been worn to bare metal.
Other features include a helpful store-brand crossover list, a maker-by-maker guide to serial numbers, a section on proof marks, and enough articles and reference sections to make for a formidable piece of work. The price is $39.95 postpaid from Blue Book Publications, Inc., 8009 34th Ave. S., Suite 175, Minneapolis, MN 55425; 800-877-4867; www.bluebookinc.com. You can even subscribe for a year to online access to the information in the book.
- By: Ed Carroll
