Now that I have a second Hartford Pope I'm in awe of my good fortune. My lovely bride of 23 years procured a near perfect 32-40, barrel #133 on a Hi-Wall with a complete shooter's kit having matching serial numbers. A look inside with a bore scope finds a near perfect bore.

This now leads my to wonder about the rifle's history. Kelver stated in his book that Harry's family was unable to find THE little black book which was the only record of all those wonderful barrels. 

Having pondered that today, it occurs to me that there must be successors to the collecters mentioned in Kelver's book. With the power of the web and our Association, we must collective know more then appears in the two books about Harry. 

How many Pope rifles do we collectively have? Who are the current serious collectors? Do the big auction houses keep records of where they aquired and to whom they sold? Does anyone have references about Harry other than the Kelver and Smith books?

I cast up 60 .320 one in 40 bullets this afternoon from Harry's nose cast mold as I pondered the above. Got 100 new 32/40 casses today as I can't bring myself to shoot the 50 unfired/primed W.R.A. Co. casses that came with the boxed set of shooting tools. Yup, can't wait to start working up loads.

Any and all comments on the history issue and or loading advice will be greatly appreciated.

Best Regards to All,
   CRK