I have a customer that recently acquired a very high grade Clabrough shotgun. Double hammers, fully engraved, gold and platinum inlays everywhere. However the tip of the for end is missing and he would like to replace it with what ever it was that was there originally. The cap and buttplate are horn so it may have been that as well, but with all the gold, silver and platinum everywhere it could have been that as well. Any help or photos would be great. Also if you all could point me in the direction of a person capable of re-creating the tip would be much appreciated. It's beyond my skills I'm sure.
Thank you all in advance for your help.

You can tell if it was horn or ebony, as the recess will be much deeper than if it were metal.

The Clabrough book by Larry Shelton will give lots of pics.

For more info, furnish photos of the gun in question.

I have 3 Clabrough hammer guns that all have horn forend tips. But they aren't as fancy as the gun you describe. One of mine needed a new horn tip and I had forum member Newfie make one last summer when he refinished the wood. He did a great job.

missing on mine as well- i assume the old glue did not hold up to a hundred and some years of pulling up on the foreend

i had assumed horn on a British gun of that period,

there is a clear picture of the foreend tip on this one

http://www.gunsinternational.com/guns-fo...un_id=100648723

Not sure about horn, but Ebony has a tendency to shrink and crack over time. It's a good idea to wax any pieces in the shop so they are usable when you need them. I suspect many forend tips simply shrunk and dropped out unnoticed. The hide glues of the period didn't "give" like modern products.

Horn is traditional and expected in guns of that era. I have never seen a precious metal forend tip.

thanks all. Yeah I'm torn as well. For a gun with all this precious metal on it I could easily seen an engrave silver tip. It seems that there is a hole, not through the for end like for a screw, but for say anchoring the tip to the wood. I have pics but I don't know how to post here. I can tell you that is is the gun pictured in the very first picture in this article

http://shootingsportsman.com/j-p-clabrough/

That's a great looking gun. It's funny. That gun is serial number 126 and I have serial number 122 which is not near as embellished as that gun. Below are a couple of pics of it including the horn tip that I had made.

Nice shotgun not unlike those they made for Winchester long ago. Man, those were the best doubles Winchester ever sold. If you lucky to find one made for Winchester in good shape expect to pay a premium.

I have a "Clabrough Golcher & Co" San Francisco repro catalog dated 1895-96.
At this time they show 8 levels of Clabrough hammer doubles priced from $40.00 through $135.00. Barrels begin with Laminated, through various levels of Damascus & finally "English Laminated". From the $40.00 through $75.00 range they are apparently fitted with a doll's head & double underbolts. From the $80.00 level up they are "Treble Wedge Bolted" IE a cross bolt plus double underbolts. The $135.00 gun has a Clover Leaf rib extension with cross bolt.
I don't believe that Clabrough made the hammer doubles for Winchester. Right now I am drawing a blank & can't think of the name of the company who did. When it comes to mind will post it.

Miller, was it Ellis who made the Winchester hammer doubles ?

This is a Winchester Class C Miller.
The first two orders of guns Winchester imported were made by C.G. Bonehill, and were in five grades from Match Gun down to D-quality. In 1882 a third order was acquired from Richard Redman. Winchester also imported guns from W.C. McAntree & Co. and W.C. Scott & Sons.



Laminated Steel barrels

Thanks, Drew. Good info.

Drew;
Thank you; C G Bonehill was the name I was trying to think of, just went blank & couldn't come up with that name. I have a "Piece" of an old hammer Bonehill. Missing the wood, one complete lock & the hammer on the other one. Looks as if many miles ago it may have started life as a decent gun, certainly not a "Best" but not Junk then.

The fore-end cap could depend on what year the hammer gun was made. But the odds are the material used on fore-end cap was hard rubber, like the butt plates. When this hard rubber material was introduced early in Clabrough's career he embraced it and used it extensively,
the higher grades had more detail designs. I had one fall off on a medium grade Clabrough while shooting skeet. Some times with wood shrinkage and age the recoil will dislodge it. I am the author of the Clabrough book Daryl Hallquist referred to in a previous PM. I would like to add this gun to my spread sheet study. If you look at my web site Clabrough.com their is a form for information I'm looking for.

Call Brad Bachelder. He might know, and can do it. He's replaced tips for me and did very nice work. 1-616-459-3636

I think the correct term for hard rubber is vulcanite.

You are right about the quality of C.G. Bonehill shotguns. I shoot a Bonehill SLE gun circa 1930. No, it is not a best, however, the quality is quite good. It is a pleasure to shoot and a very nice handling gun. It has a triple bolting system which may be overkill, but, is nice to have.

Bonehill made guns throughout the entire spectrum from plain machine made pieces to decent high end stuff. All well made guns. Lagopus.....