What is Your Best Pipe?

[Honkytonk Man]

Years ago when my boys were teenagers I’d go take them pheasant hunting in South Dakota, and enroll them with me in sporting clays tournaments, here at home.

My numbers and variety of old shotguns approach those of my huge stash of pipes. Pipes are cheaper, though. The best new thousand dollar Dunhill costs about half of an entry level Browning Citori or Beretta Six series over and under, the standard new double shotgun of the sporting clays games.


So you start asking yourself, what’s my best gun?

I own three Belgian made pre salt era round knob, long tang, Browning Superposed shotguns. Each would cost about 25 thousand to have one not quite as good made at FN today. Are those my best? Not hardly. They require lead shot, or wildly expensive bismuth.

My best target shotgun is my Winchester Super X Model One with custom deluxe target grade stock and forend and 28” Modified choke. It cost $350 used twenty years ago and I’ve added $200 of wood, and maybe it’s worth $500 if the shotgun market was not so unstable as it is today.

But my Super X is awful heavy to carry all day in South Dakota, which is why I own about a dozen Ithaca Model 37 Featherweights. For flying birds, they are best. A brand new one today is about $1,250, from Ithaca. None of mine cost half that used, most only a fraction.

But let’s pretend the do gooders finally corner me, and I have to pick only one shotgun, not two.

For my 49th birthday in 2007 my beautiful wife gave me a brand new Caesar Guerni Tempio 12 gauge with 28 inch barrels.

Tempio - Caesar Guerini USA

gueriniusa.com

The ghost of Lee, is rumored to haunt Caesar Guerni. Late at night he can be seen admiring the finest regular production shotguns on earth, and he’s smiling, especially at the pretty wood and gold inlays.

Great post.
Thanks Briar Lee.
As a kid, I used to work on a skeet range. Olympic, down the line, etc. it was tiresome. We were all paid cash-in-hand, totally illegal, blah, blah, but cash is king, right?
I don’t own any shotguns now, in fact I’m not entirely sure what the rules & regs are in Korea. Probably more time & effort than it’s worth!
Apologize for the rant.

 

[warren99]

It's a difficult question to answer since there are a myriad of criteria to consider, e.g., whether one is talking about the most beautiful pipe one owns, the best engineered pipe one owns or the best smoking pipe one owns. I can't say that I have one pipe that ranks number one in all three categories let alone other categories that may be considered.

 

[tklee]

My only two briar pipes are new, a few months old. They smoke very well. A Peterson and a Stanwell. But their walls are not yet, shall we say, smoked enough to give a final verdict. As for corn pipes, all the ones I have are MM brand. General, C&D Carolina Gent and the MM C&D: Charles Towne Cobbler. Some of them are already 3 years old, and they are excellent pipes, they give me fresh smokes, and with a good real tobacco aroma.

I think MM made the best corn cob pipe so far. All my corn cob pipes are MM, dare not try other make, especially China made one, although they are cheap, very much cheaper, but after reading all the comments about the quality, better stick to MM. Briar pipes I dare to try China made.. In fact, I have a few briar pipes are made in China.

 

[tklee]

Mmmm..... I don't have a best pipe so far ? I only have the pipes that I smoke the most and less. I have MM Cobs, Peterson, Savinelli, L&Co, Jambo, Turkey made Meerschaum, even China brand. All smokes differently. But the pipes that I smoke the most are MM Cob pipes, because of lazy maintenance ?

 

[didimauw]

I haven't had a pipe that doesn't smoke good. I've had pipes that were uncomfortable to smoke. But it's a very simple concept, the pipe. Pipes that were drilled off center still smoke great to me. For me it's how you prepare the tobacco, and the comfort of the stem.

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

If there were a fire and I only had time to grab 1, I'd risk second degree burns and grab my Howell Bulldog, Rubio Bulldog and Rad Davis Rhodesian.








And if this Rubio Hawkbill were in the slot adjacent to the other Rubio, I'd grab both at once.

 

[KORNEY]

My Tocutomi nosewarmer is the candidate,for now,to be my favorite pipe!
You can see it in my separate pipe collection posts.

 

[irishearl]

Oh, I certainly have a favorite pipe-8 of my top 10 are Peterson-made, of course. As I prefer big pipes with large bowl capacities and deeply bent pipes, the favorite is a Peterson rusticated bent house pipe.

 

[jpberg]

What a bunch of indecisive Suzies.

Here’s my best pipe.

 

[justscience]

I have best pipes for different blends and best pipes for long smokes and best pipes for ropes and nicotine bombs and best pipes for road trips...
You get the idea.

 

[kola]

I have 3, two 1980ish Peterson 303 spigots and a spiraled JM Boswell.

 

[runscott]

We're not talking about children. Re-phrase it as: "if you could only keep one pipe, which one would it be?" If I chose this pipe to keep, I am sure I wouldn't regret the decision. Would I wish I could keep 2? 3? 10? Yes.

1905 Peterson Patent 20F AB

 

[helistone]

Haha,
I love this thread.
I was really thinking hard about choosing one of the few pipes i own as my favorite, best pipe, which I enjoy the most, which looks the best, which smokes without even thinking about, and whatnot.
I have cheap ones and more expensive ones....
I simply love them all ?.
I also have all of my twenty pipes all the time in my rotation.

 

[Lost Somnambulist]

It is a difficult thing to choose a favorite among pipes. Each pipe in my small collection is special for its own reasons. The pipe I find in my hand the most though is one I gave less than $45 for, unsmoked. It is a Vauen that I picked up because the horn stem was simply beautiful with the most symmetrical pattern to the natural grain that I've seen. It also turns out that my favorite two tobaccos really come alive in it with long, cool, flavorful smokes. It doesn't have the highest price tag or the most prestigious name, but it's found a place in my world that is just right and warms my soul.

 

[bullet08]

Which one smokes the best or which one looks the best? Mine are all Peterson and they all smoke great. They all look great also, but I smoke them, I don't sit and stare at them.

 

[runscott]

This one is easy.

 

[runscott]

If anyone is paying attention, I had already posted an old Peterson Patent. Re-reading this thread, I re-interpreted the definition of "best". If I could only keep one pipe, it would be the Patent, but my best pipe (as my mind is thinking about 'best' today), is my BST bent Ron Howard tribute.

(this could change next week)

 

[jpmcwjr]

Smokey don't play dat! Too many "favorites".

 

[didimauw]

 

[FurCoat]

This old Comoys 589.