Hi Curl and others--indeed Curl was very kind to invite me to his home last fall to let me have a gander at his fantastic collection! To put it simply, I could have spent hours looking at just one of these exquisite rifles; being surrounded by all of them at once was simply overwhelming. There are a few occasions in all of our lives when we realize in the moment that we're truly getting to witness something very special. Without a doubt, this was one of those moments--being invited to see and handle the tangible products of another person's studied passion. As an added bonus I got to shoulder all of these beauties and found that the Purdey 500BPE above apparently was made for my twin. Curl took many of his great pictures and transcribed all of the relevant dimensions for me to pass along to the folks at Verney Carron in hopes of replicating this stock for a 500NE I put on order. I can't afford to chase these old treasures yet, but there is nothing to get one scheming like handling these in person!

Curl, haven't moved to Africa yet although have been out of town and dealing with a bunch of things. Did get your message and will give a ring tomorrow to catch up some more.