Two Shotguns That Fueled Conservation

A lot of shotguns have become famous over time. “Little Miss Sure Shot” Annie Oakley favored a Parker BHE, while President Dwight Eisenhower frequently reached for his Winchester Model 21. Nash Buckingham’s Bo Whoop was a HE Grade Super Fox, the stuff of legends, especially when it was lost, found, and auctioned for $200,000.

There were others, like the Browning A-5 with a serial number 2,000,000 made for President Richard Nixon, Czar Nicholas II’s Parker A-1 Special, and Bing Crosby’s Pigeon Grade Winchester Model 12. I wonder if Der Bingle wrote White Christmas while his pump was racked in a duck blind….

Quite A Pair

While we’re creating a list of historically important shotguns, let’s add two owned by James Ford and Louisa Bell. To familiarize yourself with James Ford Bell, simply look in one of your kitchen cupboards. As the founder of General Mills, Bell’s company produced Wheaties, Cheerios, Cocoa Puffs, Bisquick and Betty Crocker Cake mixes, staples in so many American homes he became a very wealthy man.

The Bells were passionate wingshooters who spent considerable time in two places. Because he was keenly interested in waterfowl biology and how habitat maintained healthy waterfowl populations, Bell frequented his Manitoba, Canada hunting lodge on Delta Marsh. Louise in particular enjoyed the Bobwhite quail fields of their Mardreland Plantation outside of Thomasville, Georgia.

During the early 20th century, Bell noticed without a focused effort, waterfowl populations could suffer. One of his goals at Delta Marsh was to put back at least as many ducks as he and his friends and family harvested. Bell raised the bar by working with Aldo Leopold — the father of modern game management — to set up a waterfowl research program on Bell’s Manitoba property, which ultimately became the Delta Waterfowl Research Station. Hans Albert Hochbaum, a graduate student under Leopold, became Delta Waterfowl’s first scientific director in June 1938. Delta Waterfowl has pioneered advancements in breeding duck ecology and wetland habitat management ever since, and continues today as a leader in North American waterfowl conservation.

Paul Wait, Delta Waterfowl’s Senior Manager of Communications, says Bell had a favorite shotgun. “The turn of the 20th Century was a Golden Age of shotgunning,” Wait said. “Bell could have owned any shotgun in the world. If he wanted a shotgun with more shell capacity he could have selected the new Browning A-5 semi-automatic or the Winchester Model 1897 or a Model 12 but Bell went in a different direction. He opted for a German-made shotgun, an exquisite Miller & Val. Greiss model made in Munich in the early 1900s. He also favored the emerging over/under design and selected a much lighter 20-gauge instead of a standard 12-gauge.”

Bell’s choice was different from most waterfowlers. First, he opted for a German-made Miller & Val. Greiss made in Munich in the early 1900s. The gun company was well known for producing exquisite shotguns at affordable prices and used Krupps steel, innovative ejectors, and a Greener-style cross bolt locking mechanism. Second, Bell favored the emerging over/under design as opposed to the traditional side-by or the emerging single barrel models. And third, he selected a much lighter 20-gauge instead of a standard 12-gauge. Bell was an innovator right down to his shotgun.

His 20-gauge featured a richly textured walnut stock, exquisite engraving and a sleek tapered matte rib atop 32″ barrels. “A few years ago, I spoke with Bell’s grandson Cecil Bell,” Wait said. “Cecil said his grandfather ‘felt a 20-gauge was a sporting gun and a 12-gauge was too much gun. He was a wonderful shot. Sometimes he’d wait for the birds to line up in formation and occasionally call his shots.” There is a picture of Bell holding his over/under 20 gauge at York Lodge at Delta Marsh.

Louise Bell

More recently in September 2024, Louise Bell’s favorite shotgun came up for auction through Pennsylvania’s Morphy Auctions. The shotgun did not meet its minimum bid and will be offered for sale again in 2025. Like her husband’s shotgun, Louise favored an equally unique-for-the-era shotgun — a 12-bore self-opening James Purdey & Sons Model SLE sidelock. With 26″ barrels, the Purdey’s overall weight landed at an easy-to-carry 5 lbs. and 5 oz. Her straight English stock had a short length of pull (13 and 1/16 over a pad) cast off, and from those dimensions we can deduce that she was a right-handed shooter. The drop at comb and heel standards of 13 and 1/16″ LOP and 1 ½” DOC. The chopper lump barrels were made with a steel bead as a front sight, and the proof marks on the barrel flats indicate the 2″ chambers were proofed for 7/8 oz. of shot. Tradition would have had women favoring a 20 bore and men choosing a 12, but in this instance it was opposite.

According to Cecil Bell, “The Purdey was ordered by my grandfather James Ford Bell for her. The gun was made in 1934, which is considered in the peak era of quality for Purdey. It’s just like a wand, and has an incredible feel to it due to the short stock.”

Louise loved quail hunting on their plantation. “She had really bad arthritis in her later years, so she hunted from a wagon pushed by a mule,” Cecil Bell said. “She sat on a chair in the wagon with the gate down. When there was a point, the mule driver would take her up to the point for the flush. I was a boy, but I remember it well. It was really neat, and other people adopted the method. She didn’t go to the Delta Marsh a lot because that was really a men’s hunt. But I always assumed she hunted ducks.”

If a person’s attitude is reflected through the shotguns they shoot, then James Ford and Louise Bell’s choices are as unique as they are themselves. That they loved to hunt and were conservation visionaries benefits us all today. Sometimes we enjoy their positive impact at the breakfast or dinner table, but other times it’s when the migration is on. When more ducks dump into our blocks, we can attribute some of it to the innovative work done by Delta Waterfowl.

Subscribe To GUNS Magazine

Purchase A PDF Download Of The GUNS Magazine March 2025 Issue Now!