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Tim,
My Churchill is actually a 26" gun made in 1910 prior to Robert Churchill's 25 model. At 5 lbs. 12 oz. it is quite the '"wand" for grouse and woodcock!

Mr. Cartmell:

Deciphering what I can from the few photos I've seen, this very-light non-ejector is early in Skimin & Wood's 2-inch production, likely from 1930. I don't yet see the JA mark on this guns barrel flats (at least from what I can make out).

I have yet to find a defining history of the 2-inch guns that fills in all of the holes. We had several H&H 2-inch guns and even a Purdey at the shop which I know were built in-house (the Purdey was built for a Maharajah), but we also had some Lincoln Jeffries guns that did not seem to be Skimin & Woods production (IIRC the action bodies were very different) and there were several others (can't recall them all now). Mark Reynolds liked them for the shop and picked up every decent one he could when he was buying in England, so we usually had one or two on hand during the busy years. We also stocked several RST 2-inch shell loads.

The 26-inch tubed guns didn't work all that well for me but... the longer ones seemed simply magical. As I've mentioned earlier here, I coveted almost every one (but could not justify the expense while my little Brummy BLE 16 was working so-well for me).

The reference library from my working days there...





My questions would be: did they all have Churchill ribs(?), how many had ejectors(most?), how many had 28-inch tubes (not many, I'd reckon?), what were standard chokes & LOP, what were standard wall-thicknesses (I've measured some shocking ones, a MacPherson & a Holland still comes to mind), and what were the more-common ranges of embellishment?

A good Vic Venters article on the subject: https://shootingsportsman.com/short-shell-12-2-guns/

Thanks for the reply Lloyd. All good information.

I do find the Birmingham gun trade fascinating with all the interconnectedness.

I was curious about the J.A mark and the associated UK Trade Mark website Skimin & Wood statement. My circa 1915 Hollis, Bentley & Playfair shotgun barrels also have Joseph Asbury’s J.A stamped initials. At that time both their businesses were operating out of Lench Street in Birmingham.

Oh, rest assured, I have!! Not much mind you, but a few times on quail and chukar. I am still in the market for the sidelock model though, just because I have the BSS 12 sidelock.

If, just if, you ever decide you are willing to part with it, I would greatly appreciate a heads up.

I’ve enjoyed shooting grouse with a Citori super light 20 gauge since the early 1990s.

I enjoy shooting the BSS 20 with the straight grip even more.

I’ve already migrated through a half a dozen other sources, and what I found was that for a person that shoots a lot of targets, the extra beef of the BSS 20 makes your first shot kill percentage higher than oh, let’s say an AYA Briarwood, Grulla Consort, or AYA #1.
In more open terrain, I don’t know if you can beat the McNaughton or Dickson RA.

Limiting yourself, of course, to only two cartridges, unless it attended by a loader.

About 30 years ago, some friends and I booked an October hunt in the Adirondacks by horseback. I brought a .308 BLR rifle and a 20ga Ithaca, deer and grouse. I couldn't carry both so it was one at a time. Whenever I was carrying the rifle, I saw grouse. So I went out with the shotgun. Saw a bunch of deer, no grouse.
Two years later, we booked a trip with the same outfitter. I bought an Nimrod drilling, 16 X 16/8 X 57. I saw nothing that trip, but that's my first dedicated gun..

I purchased a 3 inch 12 gauge Henri Piper sxs for duck hunting. And then a year later 3 1/2 inch 10 gauge AYA for goose.

Finally, Zeke, my hunting mentor, talked me into buying a 2 inch 12 gauge. He had a Westley Richards 2 inch 12 gauge, he kept an eye out and let me know when there was a good purchase to be had so I have a 2 inch 12 gauge Hellis for woodcock and grouse. I contacted Charles Hellis in 2005 and they were kind enough to share all the information they had about it from their records. S/n #4135, a JA marked gun, the model was called the Reliable. Sold to Mr. Wilson for 25£ in 1936. It was one of 12 guns they made in that configuration in 1936/1937.

I have not had the opportunity to shoot any of these four guns in the last 10 years. Hope springs eternal though, and I have plenty of other guns I've never used to divest myself of before moving these along.

In the book, Birmingham Gunmakers, by Douglas Tate, pgs. 100-104, Skimin & Wood; he states that in the Birmingham quarter, an “entrepreneurial gunmaker businessman or provincial gunmaker often used self employed specialists and outworkers in a gun’s construction. He goes on to state, Skimin had used Joseph Asbury, an actionmaker in Lench Street to make up 20 bore actions to fit 12 bore faces for their lightweight 2 inch 12 bore shotguns. States that the guns were offered finished to the trade “Wholesale Only” in August 1930. States some of Skimin & Wood clients for these guns included, Graham of Inverness, MacPhersons of Inverness, Kimball Arms in the USA, Linsley Brothers and C.S. Rosson.

Also, in 'British Gunmakers', Volume Two - Birmingham, Scotland & the Regions, by Nigel Brown, pg. 139, under CS Rosson it states, "In the years before the Second World War Rosson, like many small gunmaking businesses started having a number of their guns made up for them to their specifications by the trade. Most of them were in fact built by Joseph Curry of New House Lane, Whittall Street and in many cases using high quality Joseph Asbury action and barrel machinings. The J A initials to be found stamped on the barrels of a number of Rosson guns of that period confirming their origins." Joseph Curry of Birmingham is listed as being a Gun Finisher by trade, in business 1912-1950, as stated within Nigel Brown’s aforementioned book.

So who made what and who turned the screw?

Interesting, my brother has a 20-gauge Graham that wouldn't surprise me to find that it was Skimin & Woods sourced.

1930s gun, very slim, long and light.

The initials appear on a barrel, not the flats. Gil