doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Um, Uh, Too light??

This has been hashed and rehashed here many times, but deserves repeating. The weight of the gun is far less important, in terms of how easily one can adapt to it, than where that weight/mass is located in the gun itself. Don Amos spun that little .410 pictured above about a year or two after I got it, and got proficient with it. He found that, and I quote him, "It's moment of inertia is almost identical to that of a 12 ga. English game gun". I didn't understand and he explained it to me. When more of the weight/mass is in the extremities of the gun, i.e. the buttstock and the barrels, it increases the effort needed to swing the gun (MOI), or move it around it's center. That is exactly what you need in a very lightweight gun, for it to slow you down in your "move". An English game gun will be heavier in the action but lighter in the barrels and butt, thus causing the MOI to be different than a more "normal" double.

In the case of the gun pictured above the action is a lightweight alloy. This causes more of the percentage of mass to be on the ends and makes it handle better (slower).

I have trouble with my Wm. Powell .410 single, converted from a Rook rifle... VERY light at the barrel.

HB

In 1920 the powers that be, afraid of Bolshevik revolution, put all rifled cartridge arms on Firearm Certificates.

I suspect the fact that, when we did have a General Strike not a shot was fired,,owed nothing to the Firearms Act 1920. It was all very British.

The need for Firearm Certificates, the expense of the ammunition and the improvements in .22 Long Rifle -with Non-Rusting you could shoot a couple of rabbits for supper and not need to clean the rifle - killed the market for Rook Rifles.

Many were bored out to .410 as no certificates were needed for shotguns until 1968. Most of those also had the front part of the barrel turned down ahead of the fore-end.

This, along with the metal bored out to .410 threw the balance well back towards the butt. I find those where the barrel exterior was left untouched handle better as .410 shotguns.

Stanton, is that gun pictured a Yildiz? I seem to remember you saying you had one??

It is, Perry. It's taken apart right now, as I am doing a sanded-in oil finish on it.

I need to take some close up pics of the innards of that little action. I really don't know how they make a gun with internals and a single trigger that good, and sell it for what they do.

Yep, agree. My old Lang & Hussey converted rook rifle has 28" barrels, which helps. Unusually it is both hammer and top lever, whereas most rook rifles were side lever. Nice wee gun. Last time I shot it at the clay ground the great George Digweed came along and stood behind me; somewhat intimidating, but we had a good chat after.



Tim

It would be kinda cool to have an English single shot rook-rifle conversion but, I wonder, when the boring out was done was there any choke created? Or, were they mostly done with cylinder bore?

I agree with Daryl I had an ultralight 410 I paid over $10,000 for everybody was amazed by it. It felt right it looked great. I would sit and just hold it when I went to shoot it. It was to light I swung it very fast shot through the birds and targets when I would shoot a lot of targets quickly it became so hot. I couldn’t even hold it and I didn’t have a glove. It was just the worst shooting. I did with a 410 in a long time I quickly sold the gun and I always likedthe over Johnson Skeeter in 410 and it’s just right great suggestion.

For a lower priced gun the Ithaca Lefever Nitro Special and the Ithaca Western Arms 410s are quite shootable and somewhat easily available.

Stan, generally the Rook Rifle conversions are left with fairly full chokes.