doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com English guns with pistol grips and beavertails.

The problem when buying used guns is that the selection is sometimes limited. Trends and taste change over decades and these old gun last a century or more if take care of. So like all fashions if you wait long enough anything might come back into demand. If you do not like what you see keep looking.

Short barreled gun could be sleeved if the barrels are out of proof and too thin. Then longer barrels can in effect be created. As to restocking or altering a gun stock I pass unless the gun cries out to you. Dropping major money into what is in effect is just a high dollar shooter, not a highly collectable gun, is a very poor investment unless you intend to own it for life. And for those who have never tried to restock a gun the for end is just as hard and takes just as much time as the butt stock. In fact often one with ejectors is a very major job for a professional and almost un-doable to the amateur.

Until you started using the trigger, you would.

Best,
Ted

English guns were made with three distinct types of pistol grip in addition to the familiar straight stock.. Churchill in his book, How to Shoot, defines them as; quarter,Half and Full. Whilst full pistol grip is mostly seen on pigeon and wild fowl guns they are also found on game guns.
On 31 August 1987,Sothebys sold a pair of Churchill Premiere 12G guns belonging to H.R.H. The Prince of Wales that, have full pistol grip stocks. Guns with pistol grip stocks are seen in use in vintage U.K. photographs/book illustrations.
Beaver tail fore ends were made only to special order.

Back in the 60's it was what the American market wanted , in the late 70's we were buying them back and re-forending them to sell on the UK market . I think it is all part of some dastardly plan to keep stockers in work .

Gunman,

In the US during the 50's & 60's the writer Jack O'Connor had a huge following and was quite an influence on all things re. shotguns & rifles. He promoted short barreled shotguns & SxS guns with beavertail forends, pistol grips & single triggers as well as classic stocked rifles & especially if they were .270 WCF caliber.

I read everything he wrote. Unfortunately, I later found out he wasn't right about everything but he was spot on about the .270 WCF rifle with a classic stock.

Shooting an English gun with a PG and BTFE is kind of like kissing through a screen door; something just not right about it.

I dunno - if you are shooting this 10lb WC Scott 10-bore, it would be nice to have something to hold onto
WC Scott

Jack wasn't the only one. Roger Barlow and John Amber both come to mind on the shotgun thing.

Jack also wanted YOU to buy a rifle in .270. He was perfectly happy with his 30-06.

Best,
Ted

Notice that the English guns that were mentioned by Roy are, for the most part, guns designed to handle heavier loads. There is a good reason for this, not lost on the British. Heavy recoil is much harder to handle with a straight grip. Those who espouse straight grips for all S X S guns are ignorant of this fact. Ignorance is simply lack of knowledge. Anyone who has tried using heavy pigeon or duck/goose loads in a straight gripped gun soon learns that it is impossible for the average man to recover from the recoil of the first shot and get the second barrel on target as well as he should be able to. Pistol grips allow much more control during recoil, and the second shot is able to be brought to bear with much less effort. Nash B., as we know, had Bo Whoop built with a straight grip, but he was a big man with big, strong hands. Look at photos of him in his prime and this is easy to see. I can tell a huge difference when shooting my straight gripped A grade 32" Fox. I'm not a big man, nor do I have exceptionally strong hands, but I'm no wimp, either. I tried shooting a 200 bird state championship sporting tournament once with that Fox. Never again!

As additional proof, consider how many heavy recoiling double rifles you have ever seen built with straight grips. There may be a few around, but I've never seen one. And wouldn't buy one if I did.

SRH

Perhaps I don't know enough to understand the problem, but what is wrong with double triggers and a pistol grip? I have several doubles and even an O/U (model 32) with both a pistol grip and double triggers and don't notice any trouble.

Not an English gun obviously but built on that "pattern", and I don't think it is too horrible to look at.



CHAZ