James Gates
08-31-2003, 06:31 AM
One more for today and I'm gone! Many, many years ago, as a Winchester-Western Field Rep, I was assigned to cover the Florida Winter Trap Chain. We were at the old famous Cigar City Gun Club in Tampa, Florida. It was one of those strange hot days that can happen here in Florida. No cloud cover, hot wind blowing off the Gulf, and to add to that....smoke from the city dump filling to air. The factory boys were going nut! I could not keep a trap adjusted to suit the shooters with that wind blowing. About that time a shooter (I'll call him "Diamond Jim" as the old reps knew him) can down the line with blood in his eye. His shotgun was one of Hal DuPont's mega-bucks O/U that Hal was selling at the time. "Diamond Jim" really walked my log about the misfires he was getting with our AA's. I knew this gun was giving weak firing pin falls, but there would be no way I could convince him of that. So......I took his four boxes of AA's to the shell House and traded them for four boxes of Federal. (Get the plan?)......Well, he went away and my friend the Federal man walked up. I told him what I had done........and he commented on my birth! About that time we heard a bellow from field one, followed by 1...2....3....4 boxes of Federal trap loads hitting the ground out by the trap house! My friend from Federal and I took off, went to town, and had a drink. We figured both WW and Federal had had its day! Best Regards, James