Many years ago, back in the 1970's, I meet a man who would play a large part in my life as a friend and as a role model.

Born in 1911, Tyler Berry, Jr. was old enough to be my father, and had, in fact, a son about my age, who unfortunately did not share his interests, although he was, like his father and me, a lawyer.

My friend came from a prominent local family. His father and grandfather had been lawyers and important in their community. His early plans did not include the practice of law. In fact, when the Tennessee Highway Patrol was first organized in the early 1930's, he was one of the first members of that organization.

He did, however, become a lawyer, and by the time the Second World War began was County Attorney for his home county.

He did not serve in the Judge Advocate General Corps of the Army, as his legal training would have entitled him to, but in the Artillery. As battery commander of a 155mm “Long Tom” division artillery unit, he served in the Philippines and was there at war’s end.

At the end of the war, because of his legal background, he was assigned as part of the legal team representing Japanese Generals Yamashita and Homma before a military commission. He was adamant in his belief that the trial was a travesty of justice and that the two generals were unfairly convicted and executed.

When I first knew him, we shared a common interest in the law, in hunting, in rifles, and in Model 70 Winchesters in particular.

He had hunted widely in the lower United States, in Canada and Alaska, but not in Africa. After my first two trips to Africa in 1971 and 1972, we decided to make a trip to Kenya together in 1973.

At the last minute, Kenya issued a ban on elephant hunting, and I elected not to go, but he went on alone. He travelled by way of Egypt, and departed Cairo the day before the onset fo the Yom Kippur War, luckily for him.

His three weeks in Kenya turned out satisfactorily for him, and he returned with a good selection of trophies (but no elephants). These he added to his impressive collection of North American trophies, which included black and grizzly bear, mountain goat, all but one of the various species of wild sheep, moose and caribou. The desert bighorn, the one species of wild sheep he had been unable to bag, continued to elude him.

Like me, he loved to experiment with rifles. Among the Model 70's he passed on to me were a .300 H&H, which he had had rebarrelled with a .30-‘06 factory barrel, which he then had rechambered for the .300 Winchester Magnum cartridge. He felt that the .300 WM suffered from confinement to a .30-‘06 length magazine, and that the longer .300 H&H magazine would allow bullets to be seated far enough out so as not to impinge on the powder capacity of the cartridge.

Another rifle was a pre-64 Model 70 in caliber .375 Taylor (.375-.338). He liked the idea of duplicating .375 H&H performance in the shorter cartridge.

Still another was the 6.5-‘06, very similar to the obsolete .256 Newton. He wore out a barrel in that caliber and then changed to a Hart barrelled .25-‘06 on (of course) a pre-74 Model 70 action in a Winchester Marksman stock.

Tyler died in 1996. His finest rifles, the Griffin & Howes, passed on to his grandson, Tyler Berry IV, a high school classmate of my oldest son, but his experimental rifles, including the ones mentioned above, ended up in my hands, where they have been held against the day that they would be passed on by me. Two are in the same condition I received them in, but the .300 Winchester has been restored to it’s original .300 H&H caliber. The .300 Winchester barrel is still available, should it be wanted.

I am posting pictures of these three rifles here, to determine if there is any interest in them. If there should be, they will be listed in the classified section.

This is the .300 H&H, equipped with a Redfield Widefield 4X scope in Redfield mounts. 26" factory barrel, 14" LOP to Pachmayer pad





Here is a three shot group fired with this rifle at 100 yards, using the Redfield Widefield 4X scope pictured.



This is the .375 Taylor, fitted with a straight tapered Douglas barrel, 24" long, .800" at the muzzle, 14" LOP to Pachmayer pad.





These are two targets fired at 100 yards, using a 4X Unertl Falcon scope in Buehler mounts. I think the one wild shot in the five shot group can be attributed to me.

Keep in mind that neither of these rifles has been "accurized" in any way. No glass bedding, no special treatment. I don't think their full accuracy potential has been realized by any means.



This is the .25-‘06 with a 27" Hart stainless steel barrel, .750 at the muzzle. The barrel measures .2500" bore diameter, .2570 groove diameter with a 1 in 10" twist.

Very cool! And a good read

Very Cool Post XAUSA...

but why would you want to get rid of pieces with such history?? along with such personal history to them???

The trial of General Homma, I read much about that when it came to my attention right at the end of my college days. They did a special on it, under a series of special called "Great Trials" if I recall correctly.

There was also a book put out on it, from a company in England that did a series on stuff like that, correcting history, instead of what had been reported, but ACTUALLY what had happened....

Still wish I had those books... got lost in transit from my time in the Army and marriage/divorce from first wife.

That trial caused me to read a lot more on Douglas MacArthur... I certainly don't revere him as the hero the history books did..

your friend and mentor, is an example of one of the many many unwritten real American heroes!

IIRC, there were 5 attorneys assigned to defend Gen Homma...all protested at first for the assignment... but denied being able to leave...

in the end, with MacArthur as the Judge and executioner, they each protested after the trial.. and were summarily court marshalled by Mac Arthur...

can you verify if that was fact or fiction... that point has always stuck me wrong... honorable men, screwed by MacArthur the same way General Homma was screwed by Mac Arthur...

for those who don't know, Gen Homma was the commander who kicked MacArthur's ass in the Philippines in 1941.

If you read the real story on the Bataan Death March, it didn't really happen the way the American and allied history books portray it..
only the tail end of the column went thru all the stories we hear....

Gen Homma prosecuted the officers in charge that allowed it to happen as he did not feel it was 'honorable' for the Japanese to do this..

he was an old school Japanese military officer, where honor was the most important thing.

He was recalled to Tokyo after the Philippines had been secured for being too soft on the locals, and hard in discipline on his men, for plundering the locals...

he sat the rest of the war out in Japan being a high ranking paper pusher...

He was brought up on charges by MacArthur, the counsel was appointed by MacArthur, he sat as judge, jury and executioner.

Gen Homma's sin was he had kicked MacArthur's ass and ego in the Philippines in 1941.. nothing more or nothing less...

not a glowing example of the hero that our history books tell...

and as I read it, folks like Mr Berry also were screwed over by MacArthur...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masaharu_Homma

"Dougout Doug", also told General Officer Commanding the Australian Forces, General Thomas Blamey, that his troops were "cowards" and was an overbearing egomaniacal son-of-a-bitch.

The REAL American commander in the Pacific Theater, who deserves the accolades given "Doug" is Nimitz and he and Lucian Truscott were the finest men and best senior commanders that the USA had during WWII.

Patton and especially that utter asshole, Mark Clark, in the European Theater, were much like "Doug" and made the Allied victory more difficult than it could have been.

I find the contemporary histories of both wars now being written so fascinating, because the facts are finally coming to the attention of the general public.

The executions of major German and Japanese generals such as those mentioned above and Jodl, in particular, as well as the suicide of Von Blaskovitz, were simply a revenge by inferior men on their adversaries who had kicked their asses in battle.

When the legendary "Panzer-Meyer" was convicted, his initial death sentence was set aside by Major-General Christopher Vokes, who had commanded "The First Canadian Infantry Division" throughout Italy and beaten the finest troops the Germans had there, the 90th Light Division of "Der Afrika Korps" and the unit considered the best on either side,"The First Fjallschirmjaeger Luftwaffe Division" when Canadians broke the "Gothic Line" and "The Hitler Line" ahead of all other Allied troops.

Vokes, flatly admitted that Meyer, a brilliant and utterly fearless combat general had done nothing that he, himself, had not done in battle and should not be hanged because his side had lost....Vokes is largely forgotten, now, but, he and Truscott, the Yank, typified, to me, what a fighting commander OUGHT to be.....

quote:

Originally posted by seafire/B17G:
Very Cool Post XAUSA...

but why would you want to get rid of pieces with such history?? along with such personal history to them???

A good question, and one that deserves an answer:

The fact is that I already have rifles in all three calibers which I have an even greater attachment for. My other .300 H&H Model 70 accompanied me on all three trips to Africa and accounted for around 90 head of plains game. My .375-.338 is one I have owned since 1960 and it has gone with me on several hunting trips to Canada and one to Maine. It is built on a double heat treatment Springfield and is stocked by Hal Hartley especially for me. My other Model 70 .25-'06 has a factory .257 barrel rechambered to .25-'06 and is a super long range deer rifle. Tyler wanted me to have those rifles, but he didn't expect me to be buried with them.
The military commission set up to try Yamashita and Homma was stacked from the beginning. None of the members of the commission was a combat officer. All were aware that their fitness reports depended on rendering the "right" verdict. Under the rules, double and even triple hearsay testimony was allowed. The convening officer (MacArthur) had the right to set aside any ruling, including one of "not guilty".

The real crime the two were being tried for was defeating British and American forces with inferior troop strength, Homma in the Philippines and Yamashita in Singapore. Both were found guilty and sentenced to hang. Homma/s sentence was commuted to death by firing squad.

I have followed a suggestion and posted targets showing the capabilities of two of the rifles. The third is proving more difficult.

quote:

Originally posted by xausa:
I have followed a suggestion and posted targets showing the capabilities of two of the rifles. The third is proving more difficult.

The .300 H&H looks very good!