doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Baker Hammerless Gun Co.

Sorry, not here right now, Mike,

Anyone else have a Baker of this vintage?
I have about 6 Bakers and all are quite different.

Mike

In the pics posted by skeetx on pg. 2, the top pic of the water table shows two milled out recesses on either side of the cocking lever. What is the function of these recesses? Most Bakers don't seem to have them. A 16 ga. B grade I have that is missing its' barrels and forend has them, but the recesses are much larger.

I also noticed those recesses on the water table and that is also a first for me. I would have to count as some Bakers have moved on, but I think I still have 6 that are virtually all the same, except for the quantity and style of the engraving/etching. They are all B, A and a Paragon from about 1902-06. Well, there is a Leader of about the same time that is my real user gun. It seems that by the time the 2 screw bridle style came out in the lock plates, the design was pretty stablized until the Folsom models showed some other minor changes. The early ones seem to have a allot of changes until the 2 screw bridle.

Hello
Watertable from an old Grade 3 L.C. Smith



Runs the extractors out and in

Mike

Mike,

Thanks for the pics of the bottom of the reciever and trigger guard. It certainly matches mine. Looks like a very nice grade 3 LC also.

Jack K

Interesting posts to me. I think the "cut" in the receiver watertable is for the soon to be used "draw lug" that will later appear on all Baker marked guns, but not the Batavia series. In the beginning I think Baker made up frames for the "draw lug" but did not use the complete system early on. I have noted some I have around here and see the progression in bits and pieces.

Baker Hammerless guns 6B and 66B have the frame recess, but no draw lugs in the barrel lug.

Baker No. 45 has a receiver recess and a cross[draw] lug that fits into the recess in the barrel. Early A and B grades seem to be marked with a grade stamp. No. 45 , and others similar, do not have a grade stamp and I think these un-grademarked guns are the first Paragons, started a few years later than the A and B Grades. The Paragons seem to be in a numbering series from 1 to 1150 or so, with anomallies in the numbering of later guns. The A and B grades seem to be in a separate series from 1-7000 plus.

Guns 209B and 238B do not have the frame recess or the extra draw lug through the barrel lug.

Gun 376B has both a frame recess and an extra draw lug through the barrel lug. This detail seems to be present on all subsequent Baker marked guns. Never on Batavia series guns.

Thanks very much for that. As stated, my barrel-less B grade 16 ga. has these recesses, but much longer in size. It is a four digit SN gun, 102X as I recall. I have never seen barrels with anything on the barrel lug that would mate or correspond with this milled out area. When you refer to it as a draw lug, are you saying additional lugs on the sides of the barrel lug are present to draw or cam the barrel set rearward into the standing breech?

This has complicated my search for a set of barrels and forearm that I can fit to my gun to make a "shooter". I found a really nice set of Baker Damascus 16 ga. with original 26" length, but they do not have anything that would engage with these milled recesses. I am assuming they are originally 26" because they touch at muzzles, have normal choke constriction, and are stamped 26 on each barrel and the forend loop.

Keith, all of the Batavia series guns had no draw lugs, depending only on the rib extension bolt and they worked fine. Realistically, I do not know how much good the "draw lugs" did, but they were good advertising, at least. Go ahead and put the non draw lug barrels on your 16 ga. If they fit ok and are in good shape, they should perform fine.

Your description of the way the draw lug should work is on spot.

Daryl, Thank you very much. Maybe I can soon get this gun back shooting.

I know I'm far from the only one here hoping you'll soon put your Baker knowledge into a book. Please reserve an autographed copy for me.

Keith, the Baker book would be nice to have. Probably have enough material for two books, but I think it would be very difficult to get one's cost out of the effort for the relatively small production Bakers. They did make over 150,000 guns, but only 1150 of the higher grades which collectors lean towards.