doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Griffin and Howe Arrieta question.

I have the opportunity to buy a Griffin and Howe Arrieta round body 12 bore for a pretty decent price. I don't know anything about the guns though. As far as I can tell the gun was built in 2000. It has 29" barrels, is choked IC/Mod, and weighs 6lbs 8 oz. I would primarily use the gun for pheasants and quail in the Midwest, including SD. Since I hunt public land in SD, shooting non-toxic is required. Could this gun shoot steel shot if needed?

I would not.
Nor would I shoot large dia lead loads.

Please elaborate. Until you enlighten me, this will be a head scratcher.

Not steel proved for starters.

Thin barrels, well struck.
I've seen a few with bulges at the choke that only shot lead, and came back from pheasant hunting wearing rings.

So, in my case, I would not do as I said not to do.

YMMV of course.

How do you know it wasn't proofed for Steel? I didn't see any pics of the flats. And how do you know how thin or well struck the barrels are? Unless you've seen the gun in hand, actually looked at the bbl flats or measured wall thicknesse or mic'd the barrel diameters...., you're not offering much here.
This gun is modern enough to where the original purchaser could have specified everything from weight, type of proof etc.
If the gun is in proof, the barrels are sound, then shoot whatever size lead shot you want. If your primarily shooting upland birds with it, you won't realistically be shooting anything larger than 5's through it anyway. Have at it man.
In regards to being ok with Steel....you'll have to show the bbl flats. If your chokes are open enough, you should be ok..or there's always the bismuth route.

Why don't you contact G&H and ask their opinion?

Right about 2000, G&H ran big ads in SSM for a cased shotgun w/accessories as a Christmas gift. Several members of my club purchased them. As I recall, right around $4200.00 maybe 3600 without the case and accessories. About 1 K greater than a shop Arrieta of same model designation.


Right after was the first I saw with a ring bulge after a SoDak trip. Then over time, people would post on various sites about them, asking what to do. Nothing to do.
They obviously sold quite well, because they are regularly available.

I would not run OTC heavy pheasant loads in a large shot through one.

While it's true the OP did not say what the gun's proof marks are, and if made after 1993? it could possibly bear steel proof marks, none of the guns I handled did.

The G&H kits I handled weren't custom ordered.

Who knows. Perhaps the OP is talking about a heavy fowler with triple steel proves. But at 6-8, I doubt it.

People are free to fire whatever cartridges will fit in their chambers.
It will fire steel shot.

Their gun guy is out of town until Friday. I made that call before I posted here. I talked to an acquaintance, after I made the post, who probably knows more about doubles than most people alive. He seemed to think it would be fine for steel shot if the chokes were open enough. It wasn't a British gun like he likes, but he said it was a very nice gun. I'll continue to do some research, and I appreciate the discussion. I shoot #4's for pheasants, so I definitely want a gun that can handle those.

Why not ask the maker of the gun?

I did ask Arrieta if I could shoot steel loads through a 12-ga. Arrieta, which was built in 1996 and not stamped with the fleur-di-lis proofed for steel mark. They responded steel loads would be OK providing the chokes were Modified or looser.

I know of a .002 ring bulge at the choke area on the left barrel of a M/F choked 12-ga. Arrieta with 3" chambers. The ring bulge occurred from shooting 3", 1 3/8 oz., #4 bismuth travelling at ~ 1300+ fps. The owner researched why the ring bulge occurred while shooting bismuth and found out it was caused by a phenomenon termed momentum -- too much of a load at too high a velocity through too tight of a hole.