doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com A glimmer of hope

While it would probably be more acceptable to cry about the dearth of plastic bags on the planet, instead I will say that I dropped in on two different Cabela's today on the way home. The Woodbury store, which I had never been in, had a few doubles, nothing great. But they did have some interesting lever guns including a very early 1894 Winchester in .30 WCF. Nice gun. And right next to it was an interesting, but a bit beat up Marlin 1893 .35-55 with octagon barrel. Also a very nice Ballard-rifled Marlin 39A (1950-s vintage - the best) at a very good price. I'm a bit of a sucker for Marlins. The guy manning the room was very young but pretty darn knowledgeable and accommodating. He as excited about a Remington M8 and M11, with a few good stories of his own about M11s. Nice to see a young guy that knows something and has some enthusiasm.

Next stop was Owatonna. They have been slowly building the numbers of used guns and doubles in particular. They had a plethora of Huskies in .30-06, not that I was interested but maybe a dozen of them scattered among the racks. There was a Belgian "Guild" gun (or so listed) that caught my eye. For a moment, the very short forearm had me thinking it might be a Skimin and Wood 2" 12. Nothing special but a nice solid 16 of moderate weight (I would guess 6# even)

There were many other, better doubles. A Pape stood out to me. A nice Rizzini for those that like them was there as well. Miscellaneous others, English, German, American. Rather striking for a moment was a 36" barreled 28 gauge Greener single barrel, including cocking indicator and decent amounts of engraving. I have never seen such a gun and can't imagine the purpose of a 36" barrel on a 28 gauge. It would be quite a project gun, to get it going.

Last was a strange single shot rifle I throw in here just because I found it curious more than anything.

I think it was new, or at least of recent manufacture. Its 30.06 caliber was also odd in my opinion. It is a break-action with the opening lever being the trigger guard. They hammer is recessed but visible, just not reachable. So it has this entirely ugly, unpolished and then painted or parkerized side lever that cocks the hammer. I suppose to make it easier to cock with a scope. The barrel was unpolished and parkerized as well. None of the matched the quality of the wood, case coloring, machining, and polishing of the action. It is not a gun I would buy at any price much less >$4K, but still something different than yet another Remchester-Savuger.

Not all is lost in the Cabela's gun libraries after all.