LAND•Summer 2017

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SPORT During the course of a three-and-a-half-hour morning hunt, led by Chokee Manager Wendell Arrington, Mr. DeMoulas discussed his dedication to preserve the values and workmanship that have separated Boss & Co. from the other London gunmakers as the sole remaining hand-crafted London bespoke gunmaker. Compared with the other two top London gun makers—James Purdey and Sons and Holland & Holland—Boss & Co. is the remaining independently owned concern. As sole proprietor of Boss & Co. Mr. DeMoulas is free from the directives of quarterly reporting and the like. “A company that’s one-hundred-percent privately owned doesn’t have to go through the same procedures and steps as one owned by a conglomerate, and that’s an advantage for us,” he explained. That’s because he values the long view of preserving Boss & Co.’s 205-year-old approach to producing meticulous shotguns and double rifles. “We’re not deviating from our tradition,” he noted. “We’re embracing the tradition.” Case in point, Mr. DeMoulas continues to look at hiring apprentices at Boss & Co. to sustain the endangered art of making best guns by hand. “Apprentices are the lifeblood of this business,” he told me. “We pair them up with our craftsmen” in a course of training that could take some five years for the apprentice to become proficient at the bench. “We can still do it the old fashioned way because we’re small.” As we talked the wagon followed two guides on horseback who monitored dogs that ranged the cover for wild quail. When a dog locked on-point, the guides waved their hats and dismounted. Our conversation stopped and we immediately stepped down off the wagon, Mr. Arrington with his SKB and Mr. DeMoulas with his prewar, 28-gauge, sidelock, Boss over/under. A guide followed the dogs’ cues and slashed at the brush with a leather whip. Suddenly 20 or 30 quail burst up in a froth of feathers scattering between trees, racing through the strobed sunlight, as Mr. DeMoulas swiveled with the covey, the Boss rising to his shoulder when shots repeated and a bird dropped. In those moments you saw an extraordinary flashback to our Southern quail heritage. Chokee Plantation, owned by the Taylor family since 1997, has never released a penned quail on the property, with its mission of preserving wild quail habitat and hunts. And Mr. DeMoulas’ pre-war Boss, performing as its artisans intended, captured the historical exultation that the Taylors and Mr. DeMoulas are working so hard to achieve: picture-perfect wingshooting moments isolated from the perils of modernity. ARTHUR S. DEMOULAS (LEFT) WITH CHOKEE PLANTATION MANAGER, WENDELL ARRINGTON For Mr. DeMoulas, the idea of a “vintage Boss” is manifested in new guns that are barely indistinguishable from the Bosses made in the 19th and 20th centuries. Under the ownership of Mr. DeMoulas “vintage” is woven into the fabric of the Boss culture rather than a serial number in the company ledgers. “Boss has a two-hundred-years-plus history of making best guns only, that allows us to go back in our archives and build any of those guns again,” he explained as we continued underway on the wagon. “We have the ability, for example, regarding a side-lever side-by-side that the company made in the late 1800s through 1941, to make them now. We can start with the 12 gauge and scale everything down proportionally to the .410. We are able to build an over/under double rifle that hasn’t been built since 1913. It’s not as though we’re coming out with a new model. Our guns are as beautiful now as they were in the 1800s and early 1900s. If you come to our company and see how our guns are made you’ll think you were back 100 years in time. The customer can specify a long bead, short bead, high bead, single or double bead, round body, whatever shape of action they like and all of that bespoke work is done by hand in our shop.” Mr. DeMoulas believes Boss is the only gunmaker in London doing that. He frequently travels to London as he unrelentingly embraces the ideal of the British “best gun”—a bespoke shotgun or rifle of utmost workmanship, quality and aesthetics, which stands on finish and handling over price. Boss is thought to be the best among the best, and Mr. DeMoulas remains steadfast in safeguarding the Boss brand. “I bought Boss because it’s an iconic, world-known brand,” he said as the wagon slowly moved to the next covey. “You hardly ever see a Boss gun wherever you go to shoot. Boss made the fewest of the London best gunmakers. Case in point, after 205 years Boss & Co. is still in the 10,000 serial number range.” Mr. DeMoulas also takes enormous pride in Boss’ history of innovation. The tenure of Scottish gunmaking genius John Robertson, who joined Boss in 1891 as a partner, was prophetic for the company. Mr. Robertson’s arrival was arranged by a Boss nephew, Edward Paddison, who had assumed management of the company after the death of Thomas Boss in 1857. Edward and his brother James, who died prematurely, were unable to sustain production and profitability—although gun quality remained a priority. With Mr. Robertson now at the helm, Boss & Co. departed from the Paddison methodology of archaic, pragmatic designs 90
SPORT Boss is thought to be the best among the best, and Mr. DeMoulas remains steadfast in safeguarding the Boss brand. “I bought Boss because it’s an iconic, world-known brand.” to reach for a higher form of modern aesthetics and innovation. Mr. Robertson’s determination to combine beauty and function led to the introduction of technical breakthroughs embodied in a remarkable elegance and vision that endures today. Driven by Mr. Robertson’s artistry and foresight, Boss & Co. introduced to the shotgun industry reliable single triggers (allowing one trigger to fire both barrels), mechanical ejectors with coil springs housed in the forend (for slimmer action profiles) and the sturdy bifurcated-lump locking system that lowered the gun’s profile for superior balance and the roundedbody action for lithe ergonomics. But it was the Boss & Co. over/under introduced in 1909 that upended the industry. In the 2nd edition of his seminal book Boss & Co., Best Gunmakers, Donald Dallas wrote “Robertson’s over and under gun is regarded by many to be the finest of British O/Us and represented for Robertson the culmination of a career as a gunmaker.” LAND.COM • LEGENDARY LIVING 91
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LAND•Summer 2017

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