For the Love of a Gun

BACK IN THE sixties Frankie Laine belted out the lyrics of a popular song, “It’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all ”.As a young fellow I had my share of heartache as far as beautiful girls concerned but I never realised that in later years I’d suffer the same way over beautiful guns. As the song says, I did have a relationship with the many guns I loved and lost, which is better than never having had them at all.

I’ll begin with the first firearm I ever owned, an ancient double-barrelled Greener hammer gun. Knowing no better, I first used modern nitro ammo but later, when I’d learnt a bit more about guns, I looked up its serial number and discovered it had been made in 1878 and was strictly a black powder number. After that I began loading the paper cases with three drams of gunpowder and 1 1/8 ounces of shot. However