doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com W Moore gun

I was visiting with a gunsmith friend, and he got one of these in his shop. It's a sidelock hammer gun, side lever, 10 bore. It appears to have a two and 7/8 chamber. There is a gun on the collectors firearms website, AS148, that looks exactly like it. Except it's a somewhat higher grade. And it doesn't look like it was left in a barn for the last century. But this one is functional. There's only a handful of proof marks on the water table, crossed halberds, the numbers 11, and maybe one or two other small marks. I'm guessing it was made in the 1870s or 1880s, and I know 10 gauge loads were pretty light back then. Would there have also been heavy loads for waterfowling? That I can tell, none of the proof marks indicate heavy proof loads. And this is a heavy gun, nine and 3/4 lb, and it feels like 6 lb of it is the barrel. Would a waterfowl gun have been that heavy for relatively light loads? Asking, because I know pretty much nothing about these guns.


Tim

I have been facenated by 10 doubles for years now. I even owned one and used it on waterfowl for several seasons. I am convinced now that they are purely a young man's game.

The shorter, early 10s are likely to be the most practical (because 3.5-inch 10s beat you senseless). The added weight most of them display is necessary to help with the significant recoil they tend to produce. I'm sort-of a bigger guy and shooting one in my 40s wasn't too-bad (shells were plentiful and relatively cheap then) but the thought of lugging one anywhere now and then being abused by it leaves me a little cold.

They can be very effective, but...nothing about them is easy anymore, at least not for me.

Lloyd,
The 10s were always 10s. It is “we” that have changed. I’m starting to feel the same way about 12s.

It ain’t easy being us anymore.

Best,
Ted

Sad but true....and why I've held on to my light little 28 Dickenson.

Time is relentless, sooner or later it catches up with everyone. There is only one way to "never grow old", most all of us tend to procrastinate on that.

Yeah, you wouldn't want to lug this one around. That's what had me puzzled, I didn't think there were any short black powder rounds available that would generate enough recoil to warrant a gun weighing almost 10 pounds. Well, I think when it leaves the shop, it's going to leave lighter. The owner is another friend of mine, and I think he bought this because he wants a 10 gauge coach gun. He has sort of a hobby of buying guns to improve them. It seems he's moving on from creating trench guns to coach guns. It keeps him happy.

Tim

I have two very long and heavy guns, one is a modern stack barrel that is specifically designed for sporting clays, the other is an American hammer double that was likely intended for waterfowl (both are 12s) and both are great fun on a sporting clays range.

Different horses for different courses, eh? I think big 10s are truly great guns, but their day (at least for me) has come and gone.

Same here Ted. I cannot remember when the last time was that I even shot any of my 12's. I departed from the 12 to 20, then back to 16, the back to 20, and now mostly 28's. I have had both shoulders replaced and lost some meat and muscle in the process and the aftermath and I am just no longer sure about 12's. I know I could go with low pressure / low recoil rounds, but like other things that people "need", the significant increase in cost is not worth it to me JUST to shoot a 12. But, of course, I have not yet weakened to the point of getting rid of any of them!!

I’ve sent most of the 12’s down the road. There are a few left, but, damn, they look good in the hands of my 19 year old son.




Best,
Ted

Ted,
Indeed they do!
Karl