These photographs show the Springfield-brand double-barreled 12 gauge shotgun that once belonged to Allen Lester Korns of Southampton Township, Somerset County, Pennsylvania. Allen Korns gave this shotgun to his son-in-law Roy E. Dietle in the 1950s, and Roy replaced the broken original stock by carving out a serviceable replacement. I suspect this shotgun was originally owned by Allen's father John Wilson "Wilse" Korns because Lester Korns told me that the only firearm his grandfather Wilse Korns had was a double-barrel cartridge shotgun.
This is the first shotgun that the administrator of this website, as a small boy, ever fired. Also picture in your mind that same small boy a few years earlier, circa 1959, running through the woods after rabbit tracks in the Mercer County snow in order to circle the rabbits back to his father, who was using this shotgun. Click here to listen to a bluegrass song about those rabbit hunting days with my father.
The hammers were replaced in the 1990's, because one of them was crudely farm-made from a cut-off bolt and a piece of flat steel that were arc-welded together. The butt stock was also replaced in the 1990's. I made the replacement buttstock from a nice piece of wavy-grained walnut that was procured from a stump on what had been the Allen Korns farm.
L. Dietle
