All the makers offered stocks to order back in the day, but it seems most shooters 100 years ago went for that 3-inch drop-at-heel. A lot of Parker Bros. doubles of the same era as the Remington Hammerless Doubles have the same excessive drop. That Parkers Foxes and NIDs were made up into the 1930s and early 40s, probably a few more of them are found with factory original straighter stocks. Even in the K-grades Remington catalogues stated 2 7/8 to 3 1/8 inch drop with 14-inch length-of-pull carried in stock, drop 2 to 2 3/4 and 3 1/4 to 3 1/2 and pull 14 1/4 to 14 1/2 made to order, no extra charge. The drops on the six Remington doubles in my collection range from 2 1/4 to 2 3/4 inches, the best being my FE Trap Gun. Both of my Father's AE-Grades had about 3 inch drop and he shot them for years with a lace-on Monte Carlo pad.
In 1906 William Heer carried the high average for the year shooting an FE and a CEO trap guns -- 96.3% on 14,055 targets. However, the next year Jefferson J. Blanks of Trezevant, Tennessee, won the Grand American Handicap shooting the Remington Autoloading Shotgun, and by February 1910, Remington Arms Co. had sold out all their remaining stock of break action guns to Norvell-Shapleigh of StLouis and went where the future called. This early departure from the double gun game is likely why Remingtons are slow to get the respect they deserve.
The Joe Loy engraved higher grades certainly don't take a back seat to any American doubles.
