doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com 28 ga and .410 Dickinsons at Cabela's

I measured the frame thickness on the Dickinsons with calipers yesterday. The 28 and .410 share frame size that measures 1.34 inches at the hinge pin. The 20,16, 12 frame measure 1.49 inches at the hinge pin.

Good to see they built a scaled-down frame, nice to see something other than cost-cutting shortcuts from a gunmaker.

Anyone test the trigger pulls on these yet. Some of us want to know for sure.

The 28 ga. really looks good on paper. Round body, triggerplate small action, 5lbs. 5Oz. all steel, double triggers, and choke tubes but I am not feeling the love. Sounds like not much confidence in the Turks. Sad because I sure like the way it looks.

I have not seen these Dickinsons, so cannot speak to their quality ......... But I have some experience with Turk guns, Yildiz, specifically. What I have learned about them is that judging all Turk guns on the basis of their country of origin is narrow-minded, at best. Even judging them on the basis of the MAKER is narrow-minded. Some of their models seem to be plagued with issues, while others run trouble free. Turkish over-unders, the models at the bottom of their price ladder, seem to be the worst culprits. Each model gun from each individual maker needs to be judged on it's own merits, or lack thereof.

I have personally had experience with six Turkish shotguns. Three S x Ss, two O/Us and one auto loader. The O/Us have been approaching junk status. The S x Ss have needed only a bit of trigger tweaking to make them very sweet, and the auto loader seems to run without issue. I don't own all these but have first hand knowledge about them all.

To put a twist on our old cliche ........... Buy the gun, not the nationality. From the appearance of these guns, if I could find one with decent triggers, and I know there are some out there because a friend on this board owns two, I would not hesitate to try one. I would also like a second opinion on the prognosis that they have "hard to work on" triggers.

SRH

The only "hard to work on" opinion I have came from a very experienced doublegun smith, who actually took one apart (while I watched) and took a stone to them. He succeeded in making them a little lighter, but not much--and said he would not be comfortable going any further. Others should feel free to consult other experienced doublegun smiths, and if they're comfortable in giving you a 3 to 4 pound pull on a 28 or .410, and if you're comfortable with their work, that's up to you.

"Hard to work on" is probably the wrong phrase. Dropping the locks and getting at the triggers is not the problem. Having enough engagement to do very much honing without going too far is the issue. At least in the opinion of the gunsmith I consulted. Good enough for me.

I have a Dickinson 12ga I bought unseen from one of the western Cabelas stores. Triggers were too heavy to work for me. I tried my local gunsmith. He kept it a long time and returned it to me without charge saying he couldn't do anything with it. He didn't explain further, but clearly didn't want another try at it.

I'd suggest that anyone investing in one of these guns check it out in person with snapcaps...Geo

Very good advice, George--with which I agree.

I have no scale to measure trigger pulls, but the weight of my 6 lb. 10 oz. 16 ga. originally wouldn't trip them. I took them to a well respected Twin Cities area gunsmith, who gave the gun back to me with sears that would no longer hold the gun's weight. They're now light enough that I notice nothing troublesome for my shooting.

Jay

I purchased a .410 with M/M chokes. Had it transferred into Cabela's Green Bay from Hazelwood to inspect the overall feel and finish of the gun and to specifically measure the trigger pulls before committing to buy. This gun far exceeded my expectations in terms of fit and finish and the trigger pulls are 4 3/4 front and 4 1/4 lbs. rear. I didn't want to throw a bundle of money into a specialty use gun and thought the $1600 price tag acceptable for such a gun, but the Cabela's Green Bay Gun Library sweetened the deal by offering the the same sale price they had going for the 20, 16 and 12-ga. Dickinsons.