Back in the good old days, whenever you think that was, folks wanted guns that were "hard hitting." Everyone knows that a gun bored C/IC is not a hard hitter.
Seriously, I can think of three reasons why guns were bought F/F, with no intention of them ever getting openned up.
1) In the good old days they bought into that "hard hitting" s.., er stuff.
2) Before the advent of plastic wrapped shot columns (ca. 1960), full wasn't as full as it is today.
3) Much of the landscape in the first half of the twentieth century was deforested. Aside from the grouse woods in the northeast and the quail shooting in the south, there weren't so many opportunities for close shots.
