doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Am I seeing things??

It is indeed a gun made for a one-armed shooter, or one whose lead-arm use has been largely destroyed.

Churchill's -- at least when R.C. was running things -- made something of a specialty of fitting & building guns for handicapped shooters and the XXVs were admirably suited to such.

Note the deep pistol grip for x-tra leverage. If you have an older UK version of Churchill's "Game Shooting" book you will see pics of a similar gun and also some text explaining such, if memory serves.

So it's one of a pair. He shot this one with his right hand and I guess he shot the other with his left, maybe both at the same time. I would like to see the order for this pair of guns.

I think they might be referring to the engraving, or maybe the pattern on the gold oval?

World War I gave the Brits a lot of seriously handicapped shooters. They tried to carry on their previous life-style, of which shooting had been a very important social event (remember, very limited entertainment by today's standards - no TV, little radio, no movies to speak of, etc.). If one was going to shoot, then one needed to shoot well. Try one hand shooting with a regular gun and see how long before you start thinking about some helpful modifictions. I occasionally assist a stroke victim who can use only one arm - this would probably be a real boon for him.

There are more crossover stocks found in Britain as a result of eye wounds (Shrapnel?), for the same reason as noted above.

Look at #5 photo. appears to be a Greener side safety there. short tang would also support this. might have been converted to top tang safety at later date neccesitating the bending of the lever to clear the new button on the short tang