doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Baker Batavia Special - What do we know?

This year I have been looking for a wet weather "beater" double to use duck hunting when a Parker is best left at home. This week I stumbled into a gun I really like, a Baker Batavia Special. Prior to buying it I knew virtually nothing about Baker. This is a pre-Folsom Baker, 1900-1919? All original, 30" F/F (Homotensile steel), bright shiny bores, 85% blue. Receiver and sidelocks are patina. 14" LOP with 3" DAH. Wood solid and free of cracks. Somebody put about as much $ into the gun as I paid. 1" brown Decelerator pad, chambers opened to 2 3/4", checkering freshened to like new, satin urethane finish on wood. Wood is slighly reddish with dark tiger striping in few spots. Screws turned but not boogered. The dealer was asking $265. I jsut opened my checkbook at that price, loaded with Bismuth it will be perfect for my intended purposes. The quality is amazing given a used Rem 870 was in the same price range. I read how Mr. Baker was involved with starting L.C. and Ithaca. After handling my first Baker, admittedly lowest end, I believe a Baker to be a "steal" compared to other classic doubles. I would like to hear thoughts and info on Baker doubles.

Check out this thread --

http://www.doublegunshop.com/forums/ubbt...ge=15#Post39969

Dave adds some more Baker history on this thread from the LCSCA site http://members.boardhost.com/lcsmith/msg/1181348948.html

Am I correct, the Batavia Special was the first Baker to use fluid steel barrels and were they imported from Belgium? Did any other Baker models come with fluid steel before the Folsom period? The pictures of the high grade damascus Bakers show some incredibly nice form to go with their function.

Baker briefly offered a steel barrel version of their Paragon around 1897 called the $100 Pigeon Gun. It featured a straight grip, steel barrels and Pigeons in the engraving. A bit later there was a Krupp barrel version of the Paragon called the N-Grade. The way Baker continually changed grades and designations, and usually didn't put grade markings on their guns, adds a degree of difficulty to evaluating them.

Many of the U.S. double gun manufacturers used tubes imported from Belgium or France in addition to the "name" tubes from Krupp in Germany and Whitworth in England.

Have one also in same configuration, but not in as good condition.

A Baker Batavia Special is family gun of ours, and a tuff one at that.
Killed a turkey years ago with a high pressure shell - we've taken it easy on the old thing these day.
It makes it out a couple of times a year just to clear the cobb webs on doves.
It is an interesting gun.

Was the Batavia Special continued after the Folsom acquisition or was it replaced by the fluid steet barrel Batavia Leader?

And you would want to use a great Baker sidelock in crappy weather and leave a plain ol boxlock parker in the dry? I think you have this backwards!

I have my grandfathers Batavia Leader and it has twist steel barrels. Any idea what years they were made? I always thought it was bought arount 1910 or so...

Jeff