Thanks shreck,
The first longrifle i got to see was a shreckengost that my grandfather owned in the early seventies. He had it hanging on the wall, the most striking thing to me was the slender tiger maple stock, with it's melow honey color and redish-black stripes,then the mystical, 'witchy' inlaly designs, its the only way i can describe it.
One day i went to my grandparents house, when i went to see the gun, it was gone. Grandpa said he put it away so it wouldn't get stolen. One day i was upstairs snooping and discovered the gun in a spare bedroom and i was finally able to secretly handle the relic! The octagon barrel had an ancient rust brown finish and a tiny bore size. The double set triggers also confounded me because i could cock the gun but couldn't figure how to release the hammer regularly, then sometimes i couldn't cock it at all.
From then on, whenever we visited my grandparents i would try to come up with any excuse to go to that room, or just outright sneak up there to handle that rifle.
Much to my disappointment, my grandpa eventually sold the rifle. As much as I've tried I can't remember exact details of that gun, but the aura of pioneers , and the smokey past that it conjured up in my imagination has never left me.
