doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Montgomery Wards ID

Sunhawk,
That is a really nice gun. Usually the montgomery ward guns are very plain and no engraving. If you ever want to sell it I would be interested. Thanks for sharing it.
Ross

ross@berck.org

Because of the Damascus barrels, is this gun something I can only shoot Black Powder shot shells through? The barrels seem to be in pretty nice shape. There are no cracks in the stock. Overall the gun is very tight.

It sure would be nice to be able to try this gun out safely. I don't plan on using it very much, just curious if it is still functional after all these years.

I guess I'll try to find a good gunsmith in my area to look the piece over for me.

Thanks for the info everyone!

First the barrels should be checked out. If they havent been bored out and are not pitted inside, they should be able to shoot low pressure loads that approximate the pressures from the era. An easy load to find is the winchester AA low recoil low noise loads. If you want more selection there are some other choices like RST. They are very low pressure. Most of the cheap ammunition that you can buy is relatively high pressure so I would avoid it.

I am curious, what is the barrel length? But yes, as the others say, get the barrels checked. I shoot low pressure in my Bakers and I shoot them allot.

Just wondering if anyone knows if the 60xxx serial block may have been reserved for Montgomery Wards by Baker. I noticed this gun was in that range. I have a 16ga. I use for parts in that range and a 10ga engraved like the one shown here also a 60xxx gun. Just curious. Thanks.

So, any replies to the Bum's observations?
For you Reb, here is a pic of his Wards/Baker 10... much bigger balls and much longer tubes... 32"... 10+ pounds of waterfowler, the digital scale coughed and wheezed.
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Honestly, I think that Mr. Bell would have to stuff a couple of sawed off sticks of dynomite into some shells for the charge to hurt this gun....several times. Yet... I'm no writer, and give no opinions whether this gun should be fired or not, with any particular ammo. It is a neat gun.

I think doublegunbum is part right, at least. There seems to be a block of serial numbers in the 60,000and 61,000 range that have guns marked Montgomery Wards [both sidelock and boxlock] and some marke only Baker with O.W. on the forend iron. Decoration varies and does not seem typical with other Baker models, and some have no engraving.