Don Keller Art on .30-30 Winchester
By Horace Gore
Sometime around 1998, Texas Trophy Hunters Association cut a deal to have America Remembers make a limited edition of 250 Winchester Model 94 rifles as a Texas Trophy Hunter tribute, featuring the artwork of Don Keller. America Remembers had the rifles completed shortly thereafter, and offered them for sale later that year. The artistically embellished lever action rifle features two of Keller’s most famous paintings of the Texas whitetail: “The Genetic Pool,” and “El Jefe” (The Boss). Both paintings appeared on the cover of The Journal of the Texas Trophy Hunters.
TTHA is an association of white-tailed deer hunters and enthusiasts, founded by Jerry Johnston in 1975. The organization includes membership, The Journal, the Hunters Extravaganzas, and TTHA chapters in Texas high schools and universities.
America Remembers is an organization dedicated to the remembrance of notable Americans and significant events in American history. The organization strives to uphold the values of liberty and freedom that have made our nation great, through the production of firearms that commemorate the essence of our American heritage from the Founding Fathers who established our great country.
Don Keller (1936-2014) was a famous Texas artist who had a propensity for putting on canvas some of the finest scenes depicting the Texas white-tailed deer. Keller was a close friend of TTHA, and excelled on Texas wildlife art that often decorated the cover of The Journal, TTHA’s official magazine. “The Genetic Pool,” depicting three big whitetail bucks that have passed, waiting for the genetic soul of another big buck that had just died in a South Texas waterhole. “El Jefe” is the portrait of a South Texas whitetail that’s the dream buck of all Texas deer hunters.
The tribute rifle is from the famous Winchester Model 94 lever-action .30-30 caliber, a favorite among many deer hunters in Texas and the United States. It’s handsomely decorated in 24-karat gold and nickel, with a special blackened patinaed background to maximize the details of the artwork, selected from the works of Don Keller. The forearm stock is laser-carved with a bounding buck within an oval cameo, and the shoulder stock features TTHA’s familiar skull and antler logo.
Sad to say, the TTHA tribute rifle, like a lot of other famous tributes from America Remembers, is a “closed issue.” All 250 rifles sold out many years ago. Operation Game Thief auctioned No. 1 of the series at a fundraiser sponsored by TTHA in 1999. This author owns No. 4 in the series, which is a prized possession resting in a pecan cabinet with glass front and two key locks. Don Keller was a close friend and the TTHA tribute rifle is a cherished possession.
