doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Hammerguns are trouble, darn it.

OK, Lloyd, the average breech wall thickness on my 1899 NIG (the one I referred to as a fraternal twin to yours and an example of the “double thick Nitro breech”) is .232”. By comparison, my 1901 NIG’s average breech measurement is .169”. Both have twist barrels and both are 16’s.

For further comparison my 1900 16ga Crass is very close to the ‘01 NIG at .166”.

An early 16ga Lewis of this same period averages .182”

And right after it, an early 16ga Minier was in the same range averaging .178”.

For reference: a 1891 16ga NIG comes in at .187”.

So some speculations:
The “double thick” guns were noticeably thicker but far from “double” thus this was a marketing slogan rather than a statement of fact.
During this brief period of a few years, the standard weight NIG’s and Crass’ were essentially the same in breech dimensions while Ithaca tried to alleviate the Nitro fears of a segment of their potential customer base.
And after the Nitro “concern” lessened, Ithaca decided to return to earlier breech wall thicknesses of around .180” perhaps to reassure buyers.

Admittedly, these speculations are based on a very small sample. Hopefully, some of our compadres here can add measurements of their guns from these years to increase our understanding of this interesting period of Ithaca guns.

Randy, thank you for all of that. A Crass, a Lewis, and a Minier? You Sir have a remarkable collection of Ithaca guns! I don't believe that I've ever seen an example of either a Lewis or a Minier in person. My grandfather had a nicer NID 16 gauge in his gun cabinet (that happily now sits in my humble gunroom) but the NID disappeared after his demise in 1993 (& before I ever had a chance to fully examine it more closely). I believe it (and a Diamond Grade Charles Daly) went to one of my uncles (as it should have, mind you) who didn't hunt (and neither did his children) and from there, who knows where?

Sadly, no gun with tubes longer than 28-inches will fit in that local carpenter-made, Pennsylvania Black Cherry gun cabinet, so this 32-inch tubed monster will have to repose elsewhere.

I have a set of calipers around here somewhere. When I find them I'll see what this gun specs out to. I hope to shoot it today sometime.

Edit to add: I had a chat with my former boss yesterday while measuring this old gun (the owner of MW Reynolds) and he tells me that, in no uncertain terms, these new Colorado guns laws do not make any "exceptions" for 50-year old guns or even older. If any firearm is of post-1898 manufacture here, it will require a full background-check and a 3-day wait, period. If you have a C&R license then allright, you are still exempted on these older guns, but for the rest of us amateurs, no dice.

You could do a lot worse that having it in sight where periodically your eyes can linger on that wonderful man-sized fowling piece and imagine what was.

Randy: shot the gun today and it broke the very first clay I launched (which I take to be a good sign). It's choked very tightly (0.033 in both tubes) but it swings beautifully and it smashes clays with abandon. Recoil is understandably almost-unnoticeable and both the triggers (& the action) are very smooth, wonderfully so.

I'll haul it down to Whittington this weekend and see how it works on some of their lovely clay courses. Closer shots might be a little tough with these chokes, but on anything at any distance it is quite effective.

This gun might force me to dig out my now long-departed father-in-law's duck boat this coming Fall.

I’m not surprised at all that the internals are smooth, the barrels swing beautifully and the gun does its job with understated efficiency. I expected that but I’m still happy for you especially that a lefty found a friend in a gun with this kind of provenance. There aren’t that many of these unique guns still around in this condition and I’m glad you are now blessed with one of them. Enjoy it in good health.

And like any gun that has all this, it sparks dreams. I do hope we see that old duck boat cleaned up and again hidden in the marshes this fall with a certain NIG back in action.

Ten minutes from the back door of our little home in Minnesota.

The decoys are all buried in a pile of stuff that was salvaged from a flood we had there (a few years ago now) and they are presently in a now-abandoned ice-fishing house (that was full of yellowjackets the last time I looked). The real challenge will be the old (1970s?) Johnson outboard motor that hasn't been used in at-least 5-years now. My father-in-law kept it going with duct-tape, bailing wire, and salvaged parts from donor-motors down at the local marina.

Another service my FIL provided was early IDs on approaching waterfowl and keeping track of all the changing regulations. Not only will I need to become a "boat mechanic", I'll have to brush-up on the regs and the limits and then re-learn to quickly ID the many & various species of ducks that stream through that part of the world. Don't want to shoot a canvasback in the years you can't up there...

Ruffed grouse and walleyes are so-much easier.

We want memory to meet imagination because there what was can be again.

Looks like your (semi) retirement may just get richer.

Pass the popcorn. We’re watching (and cheering you on.)

Back in those days I was shooting an Italian 3 1/2-inch 10 (but it only had 30-inch tubes). I opened the chokes so it could shoot more-inexpensive steel (that I would buy locally), but the recoil from those hardware-store loads was so-intense (at 1,400 fps) that the gun started to "rivel" (as in rivelling) and finally shot loose. I then switched over to pump 12s but... it just wasn't the same.

FWIW: the recoil from this 10 was pretty fierce.

All set-up and ready for Whittington.



A special thank-you to Skeettx for the "Heike's Hand Protector" here.

I like those Chinese (Tourbon) slip on butt pad extenders. I use them on old English SXS's so you don't have to mess up the stock with a wood extension or ugly fat recoil pad.