Nothing special here, just throwing in my old shotgun for the sake of completeness....

This is a single-shot sixteen-gauge Champion shotgun, produced by the Iver Johnson Arms & Cycle Works. I have no idea how old it is, but it was far from new when I acquired it back in 1970.

I've had this one much longer than any of my other guns. In fact there was a long period when it was the only gun I owned. (And I wasn't even supposed to have that, because of a federal law - since changed - that classified me as a convicted felon.) I got it from a preacher friend of mine, who sold it to me for fifteen bucks but made me promise never to sell it or give it away because he'd been given it by his father.

I've always thought that the basic single-barrel outside-hammer shotgun of this type is the most honest firearm anybody makes. Dead reliable, very few moving parts, no complicated mechanisms to go wrong; break open, drop in a shell, snap shut, cock hammer and fire, repeat as desired. You have to admire that kind of elegant simplicity.

Versatile, too; just about anything you might need a gun for, the old one-shooter will do the job if you can get within range. You can use it on small game - I got it in the first place so I could bring in the occasional rabbit for the family pot - all the way up to deer; and I've got some German-made slugs that I am assured will kill a leopard at twenty feet. (Not that this seems likely to come up here in Cherokee County.) Good for home defense, too; not many men are brave enough to go up against a shotgun, and the ones who do tend not to survive the experience. Of course having only one shot is a limitation, but it does tend to make you careful.

I hung the old piece up long ago, when I quit hunting; it hasn't been fired in years. But I wouldn't part with it, and not just because I promised. It's an old and trusted friend.