doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Best of the Working Man's Doubles

Had a 'Dreadnought' (sp?) SLNE by "Hell Werke" of Birmingham. Not quite a domestic farm implement, but it qualified for sure! I upgraded to O/U in "Junker Class".

Sorry, lads, but I don't consider either the Elsies, real Foxes, or Parker Trojans "working man's" guns. Just my opinion, but back 50 years ago when I was working for 50 bucks a week, the price tags on those great American classics cast them out of my blue collar budget. As for the Hunter Fultons et al, I'd say they tied with the Nitro Specials. Hope we have some fun with this thread! Chopperlump

Don't forget the Springfield and Crescent Arms makers. These were truly utilitarian guns with nothing in the way of fluff or polish. Best? Heck no. But as soon as you say "best" and "working man's gun" in the same sentence, you've created a conundrum.

For whatever its worth, my vote for the "best of the working man's doubles" would be the Ithaca made Lefever A-Grade Nitro specials...Geo

Regarding George's comment about the Lefever A Grade, a truly handsome gun. Always wondered whether one could take a standard Nitro receiver and machine its sides after annealing to achieve that "A" look? - Wonder if there's enough steel stock there to do do that? Could be the basis of an interesting and handsome little gun. -But, I wander off-subject.

I've had little experience so far with my new 16 Hunter Spl., but what there's been has been very good. Can't recall a critical word on these and I like their appearance. So, I'm with Mr. Christian on putting this one forward for consideration.

I think John nailed it. All the "this was my grandpa's gun" I've seen around here have been single shot 12's.

For some reason my family all had single shot .410's. Either they really liked squirrel hunting, or they couldn't shoot a .22 well enough. :p

But for doubles, around here there seems to be a lot of 311's used hard. Mostly in 12, a few 16's.

With a family rooted in the steel mills of Pittsburgh since the late 1800s I'm familiar with a few working men and their guns. Few I knew shoot doubles - too expensive. The handful who did shoot doubles were carrying hardware store guns, probably mostly imports. A couple had Springfields which were rather highly regarded in that group. Most were in 16ga because waterfowl and turkey didn't figure in the hunting around there and the 16ga made sense for upland game (rabbits/squirrels/pheasants). Ruffed Grouse were beyond their shooting skills as they didn't practice as it was too expensive. Don't recall seeing anything with side locks - wouldn't have known the difference. Did know of one LC Smith light weight field grade 20ga which my friends father acquired from a wealthy widow in exchange for house repair work. It was a thing of special beauty to me then. Never saw a Parker, did see a couple of Ithacas in gunshops.

Much the same in my my area. Growing up in the 50's most of the guns I remember were pumps or semi's; my dad shot a Savage 775a, but I probably wouldn't know that if I didn't still have it. It's a 16 because after the war that's the first gun he found. I have heard rumors of a ubiquitous "double barrel" that predated the auto, but I don't remember it. I toted a single shot .410 until I graduated to using Dad's gun; it was the only gun I had for a long time.

I have to agree with the Crescent idea. Here in west central Ohio, there were so many Crescents used before the farmer came into money and bought a Win. '97 or Mod. 12. Yes, many of these Crescents show alot of use and abuse, because that is what they got and they kept on working.

Many kids just are too spastic to shoot a .22 rifle well offhand until they are almost in their 'teens. I know; I was one. Add to that the fact that many of the entry-level .22 single shots had TRULY lousy triggers; my first gun was a Remington 514 which had about a half-hour trigger pull. Not what you want for running jackrabbits and frisky ground squirrels. So I got a Win M37 .410--(I may be related to Halvey) and pretty well extincted the ground squirrels in the vicinity of our ranchhouse (my older brother still remarks on my un-sporting nature). I was focussed on the 25-cent bounty my dad had on them and on the fact that he told me they carried bubonic plague (not an old wive's tale, by the way).

To get back On Track, I would nominate the A.J. Aubrey 12 and 16 hammerless doubles (Were they really "Crescents"?). You could buy them out of the Sears and Wards catalogs. They held up OK and were affordable; more reliable than the JABCs you could get from the same sources. In my area of California, there were many Italian-Americans in the country and for them the 16 was IT.