HL Leonard Hunt 50-5 Fly Rod 8' 3/2 #5

An H.L. Leonard 50-5 Hunt bamboo fly rod, 8', 3-piece, 2-tip, and built for a #5 line. Serial #8083 (1980). Heavy at 4.8 ounces due mostly to the rarely seen all nickel silver reel seat with a cork reveal. Modest use with some ferrule wrap cracking and a tiny bit of wear to the inner snake guides. The slim cigar grip has been cleaned leaving it slightly ridgy. A close inspection with my 3x magnifying glasses reveals no imperfections or hook dings to the superb, glass-like varnish. The action is on the faster side of medium. Flamed cane with 3-up node pattern. Dark maroon/red main wraps (it was actually a light purple color) with purple and red edges at the keeper and male ferrules. Agate stripper and black snake guides. The rod retains many of the hallmarks of the Maxwell period at Leonard: the slim cigar grip, pewter oxidation of the step ferrules, and small pressed nodes. Some special details include top hat ferrule plugs that were even oxidized. The grip is 6" long and tapers to a very slim cigar. Another special detail is the nickel silver reel seat — it was made from tube by cutting an opening out on a mill/drill with an end mill (a tough job as I made some of these when I was at Leonard. Soldering chips were thrown all over, even landing in your hair!). A standard cap and ring were then fitted over a cork base that had been flatted. This one is unusual as it was oxidized and would wear off very soon. On later seats we dropped the oxidation process. This one retains 90% of the original oxidation. The rod comes packed in a tan color cloth bag and a grey frost-coated aluminum tube with brass hardware.

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