doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com my first double gon

Oops!! I realized after I said I would check that Jeff's went out of business back in 2022?? Any other suggestions?

Perry,
CSM might be the source. or who ever took over Jeff's. EBAY has one.
Karl

This was my first sxs, I bought it in Stevens Point WI in 1965 for $15, I think. I was looking at a 10ga, $25. but my buddy bought it out from under me. I really don't know much about it, I think it was converted from a MZL as it has an ramrod thimble on the front of the forend and you can see where the ramrod pipes were removed from under the barrel, plus the patch box. It looks like the barrels were attached to a cradle that has the hinge pin and under lug. I was eighteen had no idea about Damascus barrels, short chambers so I killed a pile of grouse, ducks, pheasants and squirrels with JC Higgins High Brass 5's and Imperial high brass 5's. It is still in WI hanging in my BinL's living room, his home was the Weyerhauser office and management quarters when the first logged norhtern WI and has lots of memorabilia from the turn of the century.

First SxS would have been a WW Greener Facile Princeps 12 bore made in 1895.

Oskar, your percussion gun looks cool...any makers info? barrel proofs?

my first double was a Stevens 12 ga [ model 335] circa 1912. it was a gift to me from an amazing old man, who was a dear friend of my father and I. he was born in norway, but grew up in the upper peninsula of michigan, basically in logging camps run by his father and family. his mother schooled him and at age 16 he went to Michigan State, getting his bachelors degree in 3 years. he was an enormous athletic man, 6 feet 6" and over 300 lbs when he finished college , with a 32" waist !! he returned to the UP and eventually ran the logging operation himself. he lived to be 99 and died in the early 1970s, [ when i was away at medical school ]

i spent numerous afternoons and evenings with him, from high school onward [ he was a widower, and they never were able to have children] listening to stories of all types, but especially hunting and fishing tales. he said that Stevens had taken two bears, more than 18 deer, and countless ducks and geese. if the shotgun was involved in the story he was relating, he would conclude the tale by breaking open the double and handing it to me and saying 'and this is the gun i i used.' once, after i handed it back to him , he handed it back to me again, saying ' I dont need this any more and i would like you to have it !' for a moment i was unable to speak...but then i said ' yes, i will take it... but not now, not today, you keep it for now, but i am honored to have it and i will use it. ' about a year and a half later he passed away, and i did get the gun. and i did use it and took ducks and geese with it, later when i was in the army and stationed in Texas.

i also have his traditional hand woven sweater made in the 1930s by his aunt who was a Sammi [ Laplander ] in Norway. i have also worn it frequently and even when hunting.

i still relish the stories he told me, and his friendship ...... and his memory is fresh and precious to me even now.

My first was an 11 pound Francotte 20 ga with a Miller Single Trigger that I purchased sight unseen from a large gun dealer on the internet. Yes, 11 pounds, at least according to the salesman.

I’d been carrying an 8# 12 gauge OU with a dreadful synthetic stock, and I was looking for a proper grouse gun. It was between a Stevens 555, and a vintage double of some sort. One of my dad’s buddies who was into old doubles suggested I looked into it.

I took his advice, much to his chagrin. After having admired the Francotte for about 2-3 weeks, and having viewed hundreds, if not thousands of SxS listings before finally deciding to pull the trigger, I finally phoned the dealer. I asked the scripted questions, like — do the barrels ring? Is it tight on face? (I hardly understood what this was)....And how much does the gun weigh?

The salesman confidently replied, “At least 11 pounds.” I stammered. He then confidently explained, “Well, you DO know this IS a a DOUBLE-barrel shotgun, and you know, they start at about 7-8 lbs for a 12 gauge, and because this one is a 20 gauge, so it will weigh AT LEAST 11 or 12 pounds; maybe even 13 or 14 pounds, I’ve seen some that weigh up to 17 pounds.”

Upon receiving the gun, it tipped the scales at a whopping 5 lbs, 5 ounces. It was a delight to shoot, carry, and miss with. All my shotguns have been vintage side by sides, and my dad has gotten the double bug as well, and we have a lot of fun together with it!

The company that Jeff sold his business assets (mailing list, production contacts) to is called Venatti and is based in Texas. Last I looked some of their cases looked IDENTICAL to what Jeff was offering.

My first break action gun was a 16 gauge Bay State single, old as the hills with no bead on the barrel. Bought at an old country store from a wooden barrel which held their gun inventory for $6. It was 1962 and I was 13 (No ATF then). The store doesn't exist now (literally no piece of it) as it was destroyed by an explosion of a dynamite storage shed out back about three months later. (As in, remember, no ATF then). I converted me to break action guns.

Later, around 1966, after reading all the sporting rags I bought a Savage Fox Model B from my local dealer, a gentleman known as Boog Muck whose real name was Charles McMillan. Boog was blind and kept his inventory displayed on a bed in his front bedroom. (Remember the ATF thing?) He was as fair and honest as could be within the definition of a blind gun dealer and all of his regular customers made sure his other customers were too. The gun was a 20 gauge intended for quail but somehow the club like handling never seemed to live up to my expectations.

Forward to 1972. I am newly graduated from college, have a new job paying more than my whole family has ever made, and am engaging in a lot of firearms transactions. I have an Ithaca 51 Premier Trap which unfortunately had just had a few inches of it's barrel surgically removed by the wife of my FFL holding cousin using a corn stalk as a scalpel. I had relieved him of the corpse, shortened the barrel and installed a new bead. Total investment of $75. My Dad and I were driving through a really run down decertified small town in danger of disappearing which was the site of a lot of bootlegging activity. My Dad saw an older guy he knew ( the local armorer of the homegrown mafiosi) standing in front of an abandoned storefront hawking his wares. We of course had to stop. In his collection of pump guns and singles stood the gun that changed my life. It was a late 40's Ithaca NID which I later found was a field model but had come from the factory with an incredible high grade butt stock (happened a lot in that period of using up parts). It was also fitted with a set of the lightest range 28" barrels. It looked hardly used. The trap gun soon left my employ and I became the keeper of the best dove gun in existence. I soon discovered the reason for it's great condition. The point of aim was 18" high at 30 yds, likely due to the light barrels and a heavy handling style. I used a burlap bag as a pad and a small sapling fork as a vise and bumped it back into alignment, At 6 pounds even it was death on any dove I could see. People talked about the gun locally when they saw it work. I liked it so much after a few years that I refinished the wood, had the barrels reblued and the receiver charcoal case hardened.

After 53 years it still lives in my gun case with about 75 of its closest friends.

My first SXS was a Harrington & Richardson 20-gauge. I think it was made in Brazil. Bought new; it was $105, including the tax. When I got it home discovered it was choked modified, and improved cylinder, and I was worried birds would escape through the patterns. I shot mostly doves back then, and they did not. I once shot a bird directly overhead on a very flat strip mine area and heard the pellets hit and pass through the bird. Sort of a rapid succession of plut plut pluts. It was a good little gun, but I sold it because the solder at the front of the rib was coming loose. Considering what it was, I should have kept it and JB welded it back on if it needed it eventually.