doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Baker Bativia Special 12 gauge

Gentlemen,
I have an old Baker Bativia Special sidelock 12 gauge that belonged to my grandfather.
I would like to hunt with this old double but the bores are quite rough.
Could anyone recommend a smith that I could send this to for reboring?
Any rough estimates on what this would cost?
Please let me know if you could help.
Thank you,
GC

"We deal in lead, friend"

"Ah, then we're in the same business."

Unless the barrel tubes were made with above average wall thickness, you probably don't want to have those barrels rebored; could make the barrel walls too thin to shoot the gun safely. Barrel pitting is indeed very unsightly, but most barrel pitting is not so deep that it will impact safely. My suggestion would be to have those barrels inspected by a qualified double gunsmith; and if then judged to be sound, use the gun with shells loaded to period pressures. The chambers on your Baker could be shorter that today's 2 3/4" standard; so, if that's the case, I suggest you use period shells of the proper length, or open the chambers to 2 2/4" (most American double guns have ample thickness in the chamber area for legthening).

Rough bores with pitting do not usually have a negative impact on the pattern - nor do they detractfrom hunting capability. They do require more cleaning after the hunt, but that isn't a big factor.

I have an old 1909 Baker Batavia Leader with twist barrels and significantly pitted bores that I have used Four Tenner inserts that are nine inches long with no problem. They aren't made an more but pop up on gun sites now and then.
I also have some 12 guage to 20 guage Guagemates that fit in the chamber that I intend to try. When the 20 ga load enters the 12 bore there is a significant pressure drop; more so with the four ten.
In patterning the 20 guage loads out of a 12 bore there is about a 2" increase in pattern size but still well dispersed.
Using RST low pressure shells would also help.

Thanks gents,
I scrub out the bores the best I can and load some low pressure loads to pattern.
If it patterns halfway decent, I'll try for a gobbler when the season opens in another week.
Thanks again,
GC