doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Field grades - shouldn't they be 12 gauges?

Bet that NID don't have the word "grade" on the rib, Curt?

jack

Bobby, sometimes you'll catch me out with a 12ga. field gun, and then again, you might catch me out with a 12b in something all together different.
Btw j0ey, these lads got the point!
You gotta follow-the-bouncing-ball better mate.

Rabbit, those millions of midwest single-shot break-action shotguns must all be in private collections by now, or have been made into pump handles sometime in the past.

One Rabbit did.

Hey Bobby, What happened to the 20 SW on ebay? Your bid of 600 something would have done it after all. Jake

I don't think the term "field grade"had anything to do with a farmers tools, utility gun, etc.

I think it was just that the ordinary Joe didn't spend extra money for engraving and XXX wood, therefore he wasn't afraid to take it "afield" and scratch it up.

Like we are now when we find a pristine Nitro Special.

Rob

Lowell, since this is all about words and style and marketing and Who's Who and Town & Country, let me say this. The old status elite (in the country of your birth rather than the one of your dreams) was comprised of doctors, lawyers, bankers, preachers and engineers. Exactly the sort of folks to contemplate the desirability of the "sporting" doublegun. Farmers were busy with something closer to the bone.

By the time of the Depression, Savage attempted to turn "low end" inside out by putting two ivory beads that crack down the middle on its S/W "Deluxe". Perhaps the original bolt-on status enhancer. I'll bet a lot of well-bred lil fellers forced to take up a trade and live next the Chicago El lusted after one of those. It's all one big echo, Lowell, like the vestigial shell between the fences of a post-VJ Citori.

jack

The Brit game gun in 12 - 2 1/2" is another way of doing 16/20 gauge, in terms of performance. American 12 gauges tended to 7 1/2# to 8# guns shooting 1 1/4 oz loads in 2 3/4" cases, just like the Brit fowlers and pigeon guns. For sure you can use such a gun for upland "field" shooting, but it isn't a dream to carry and swing. But, if that is what you have, then that is what you use. 1 1/8 oz in a 16 gauge or 1 oz in a 20 gauge is passable duck medicine, if that is what you have.

The Brits tended to use case length (2 1/2", 2 3/4", and 3") as the separator of shell performance whereas the Americans used gauge (10, 12, 16, and 20).

So actually it's about small "b" and only Don "gets it." I think I prefer it that way.

jack

Btw Rabbit, I've staked out a piece of the country of my birth!

The field grades(sporting doubles) were made for those middlewestern turnip types close to the land - the crop was in, and they walked out the backdoor to hunt. The money was there for not much more than the entry level double gun.
I'd say thats a much better fit than your "old status elite," who had their Parker Bhe guns - you know, the doctor's gun!