Читать книгу Gun Digest 2011 онлайн

154 страница из 495

Like father, like son: two Stevens-equipped generations of Tedmons after a day’s hunting.

The germ of Allyn’s infatuation with Stevens, however, was implanted by his own father, whose Christmas gift in 1900 was “the first rifle I ever owned... a Stevens Ideal No. 44...to me, yet, the most beautiful Rifle ever produced in this country.” So emphatic a sentiment, expressed 20 years later and after much grown-up shooting experience, leaves no doubt as to the impression that “first rifle” made on 16-year-old Allyn.

The family apparently resided, at least seasonally, in northern New Jersey during some part of their “Eastern exile,” as a letter of Allyn’s published in the July, 1902, issue of Recreation identifies his address as Ridgefield, N. J. This brief response to another reader’s query, very likely his first appearance in print, further extols the “good work” of both the Model 44 and the .32 Long Rifle cartridge, which, he took pains to explain, was, unlike other rimfire ammunition, “inside lubricated” (i.e., the bullet’s grease grooves were inside the case). It also provides evidence that opportunities for the pursuit of “small deer” were relatively abundant.