doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Thick wrist fix?

Chief, my 20 ga. M-23 weighed nearly 7 lbs. -- it was the straight grip version they called the "lightweight", but wasn't. Jay

Thank you all for a fascinating thread. I have only one gun, a Beretta Silverhawk (DT, straight stock, 12 ga) that has a thru-bolt and it gave me fits trying to make the stock fit me. I finally took a sander to it and it's fine now except the thick wrist has always bothered me even tho I have big hands. I just measured it and it's 4 7/7-inches.

My AyA #2 20 ga is 4 1/8; the Victor Sarasqueta 12 ga and the Arrizabalaga 12 ga both are only 4-inches! These guns are sheer sex to use!

I have no trouble holding the thicker Silverhawk but it feels very clunky compared to the svelte wrists on the others.

If a thick wrist is a necessary consequence of a thru-bolt, then (to me at least) that is a major disadvantage to the thru-bolt design.

Note added in edit: I meant to write 4 7/8-inches for the wrist on my Silver Hawk. Sorry.

Quite a few through bolt guns don't have a bottom tang. My Weatherby by Fausti does not. I recall having an Ithaca Western Long Range converted from PG to straight, which was a pretty easy job for the stock guy because there was no bottom tang.

Jay, I believe I've seen at least a couple of those Model 23's made for the Euro market with double triggers. Nice guns. They are to the 23's designed for the American market as are the SKB Royal Lights to the Ithaca-imported SKB's--although those were lighter guns, even the imported ones, than the 23's.

I forgot to mention -- the European version has chamber length marked: 2 3/4"-70mm. I think the domestic 23s are all 3".

Jay

Jay,It seems that the Win. 23/201 and the Browning BSS share that trait yet the Miroku/Charles Daly guns that are very similar can be much lighter. Your euro gun seems just right for a 12 to me. This is the main reason I chose the Ithaca/SKB 100 long before the secret got out! Cheap, light, good handling guns in 20 ga.

I may take some time and carve some mock ups to see if the profile vs. the diameter would give the perception of being thin (er) and still leave a reasonable amount of wood. Something in the 4 3/8" to 4 1/2" range before I permanently change the SKB.

Chief

Chief, I've owned a couple Ithaca SKB 280 20's on which the forend iron has been modified--in one case to fit the splinter off a Model 100, and in the other case, to work in a shortened and slimmed-up 280 forend. If they'd put a splinter on the 280 to start with, or offered it as an option, and maybe with double triggers also as an option, they would have really had something there. Maybe also more open chokes in their 28" guns.

Col., I agree. The early 200/280's had some decent hand cut engraving for a low ender also. Over time I've had a 25" 20ga 100 and a 28" 12 100. The 25" gun wasn't as nice handling as the 28" 20 I still own. Of course there is a lot of variables to that. The 12 didn't stay long! I've since corrected the choke problem, single trigger is OK with me. Some years ago I bought an SKB Royal, cheap! Nobody at the time knew what it was, including me. It looked like a damn nice gun and was. Two triggers, nice engraving and well under 7#. Still regret selling it.

Chief

While thinner wrists seem to fit most folks a bit better, I'm not sure that the size of the grip matters as much as the shape. If you partially close your hand and look at it, what you will see is more of a diamond shape than a perfect circle. I'm guessing here, but I suspect that if you took even a larger grip diameter and shaped it to be more of an diamond shaped oval, you'd find it to be more comfortable to hold.

FWIW my CSMC A-10 small frame straight grip measures just a skosh under 4 1/8 inches. Diamond shaped and a through bolt. Out of curiosity I also measured some other guns, all straight stock, through bolt 12 gauges. Ruger Gold label measured exactly the same as the twenty A-10, slightly less than 4 1/8" which somewhat surprised me that it was that thin. Definitely a rounder contour, however. Four different Superposed Superlights all measured just shy of 4 7/8". Again, that surprised me as they felt and they feel smaller than that to me. An A-10 also measured just slightly less than 4 7/8".

btdtst, you have two grips there that are the same diameter at 4 1/8". One is round, or oval, one diamond shaped. Which one feels better?

The gold labels sound like nice guns, too bad they couldn't stay with it.

I don't think I have enough material left in the SKB stock to get a diamond shape. I may still reduce and reinforce the grip to get it in the 4 3/8" range.

Lloyd3 I think from reading these posts I agree,the shape probably trumps the diameter, within reasonable limits.

Getting back to the RBL 16 I never thought the grip was too big, generous for certain but OK to me. Others found it the worst ever according to this forum, I think Hillary's ankles were compared!. Gnoman posted about a Beretta Silver Hawk that gave him fits to fit. I handled a few Silver Hawks and thought the grips were awful. His Silver Hawk is in the same diameter range as the RBL. My perception was that the gun, (Silver Hawk) was a clunker. Others think they are OK.

Chief