I must say that in the old days half the fun of buying a trade gun from Northstar was talking to Curly. I was a dealer for his trade guns for several years. When I first approached Curly about being a dealer, he asked me if I shot a trade gun. I told him yes, and then he asked who made it, and I said I did. He asked where I got the parts. I told him I got most of them from Dixie, and Track of the Wolf, and that most of them were from their close out sales. He asked me what it looked like, and I told him it was a Chiefs grade with a 30" barrel. He asked where I got the barrel, and I told him it was a surplus Belguin shotgun barrel that I filed OTR and filed in the wedding rings. I began to suspect all this questioning was going somewhere, and finally he asked me if it had a Chiefs grade thumb piece, and I had to say no it didn't. That was what he was fishing for. He sold me a sterling silver thumb piece for my trade gun, and was happy that he had something of his on my gun.
I still have one of his 42" barreled standard grade guns that a customer, and dear friend, left me in his will. It's a great tool to bring up old memories of both of these characters. I'm sorry to hear Northstar may go under.
Hungry Horse
