doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Why the abused old doubles.

"Easy come easy go" It's more than just an expression. When people inherit things rather than purchase them they were unappreciated. Then throw in that pumpguns became the thing as u/o are now (look at Britan) even less appreciated.

I'm one you can blame, I was brought up in a household that a shotgun was to.put food on the table. The only person I knew that shot a sxs was an uncle and he had no problems potting pheasants out the car window. I loved sxs's and treated them like I saw on Gunsmoke and Hop Along Casity, throw a couple of magnums in and flip the barrels up slamming it shut. I had no mentor, there was no Internet and we couldn't afford hunting magazines. It wasn't till I got in highschool, had a part time job and could afford to shoot trap that I learned about shotguns. In a lot of the rural parts of this country shot guns were tools, road between the fender and seat of the tractor(there were no cabs on tractors). If they broke stuff was fixed enough to go bang, no one cared how it looked.

I think it goes beyond thinking a shotgun is just tool. I shoot with a group of well educated people on the skeet range once a week. Guns well over the $5000 mark. I am only one who regularly cleans their gun. Most might get cleaned at the end of the season or once a year. I also shoot waterfowl with friends who use $2000 plus autos. They never clean their gun until the gas ports or other mechanism clogs up. I don't purport to provide an excuse for them as I don't understand why they don't clean them. I would expect for most it is education why one should clean and laziness.

I also shoot Cowboy Fast Draw and there is a line up at the cleaning table after each round. But it is well understood that after 10 rounds of shooting plastic bullets the fps can drop off by over 100fps.

If you actually think about it, the old excuse for abuse, heavy rust, etc. because guns were used as tools is kind of dumb.

There are all kinds of tools. Some are designed to be roughly used and abused, such as cold chisels and shovels. They are relatively cheap and expendable to a degree. You sharpen them and use them until they are worn out. Even that type of expendable tool can be abused and prematurely ruined if not used and cared for properly. Only a complete idiot would treat a good micrometer or vernier caliper as roughly and indifferently as a cold chisel or a shovel, but some guys do.... because they are idiots.

Even cheap guns are built with a degree of precision, and they require proper care and maintenance. A friend recently showed me a set of expensive self-feed wood boring bits. Every one was severely beat up and they were totally ruined. I asked him what the hell happened to them. He said he had loaned them to another friend, and they were returned in that condition after he tried drilling through a concrete block wall, destroying one after another while running electrical conduit in his business. Then he told me about other tools that this guy has ruined. He had no brains, and no shame either, to return them in that condition.

I have a cheap Savage model 94 20 gauge that I keep in my garage. I paid around $25.00 for it and had to make a new firing pin. It sits in my unheated garage, ready for use, with a piece of tape over the muzzle to keep mud dauber wasps from building a nest in the barrel. It is a tool, nothing more. But I still wipe it down from time to time with an oily cloth, and check the bore. It is in the same condition as it was when I first fixed it 25 years ago. Some people abuse guns for the same reasons they abuse tools, cars, trucks, and everything else. They just don't give a crap.

One of the main reasons so many fine guns are found after being abused is because the ones that haven't been abused are kept and cherished, so are not seen. By the same token the abused ones may have been passed around to several people until someone finally squares it away.
Mike

Mike, I like that answer ( with a little a-ha makes sense moment.) I also know there is no one answer and that value/ money has different meanings and different thresholds for all people.
I realize there are many example and situations, but I am pondering 🤔 or ranting about the clear damage- not heavy use, not an accidental broken wrist but just plain busted and beat items. “Mid grade” was mentioned but I don’t treat a field grade or a Sears gun the way some of these have been. I realize- cars get wrecked, clothes get torn etc etc.
But I guess that’s just it - once it starts - once someone else has - who cares? “It wasn’t ‘mine’ “

It's beyond understanding. One of my interests is Remington 30-S rifles, considering the small number of them built, the number of disasters out there is amazing. Or maybe just too many disasters drifted into my orbit. Some were terribly butchered, others, I think the only original part left was the receiver. It's like they were bought for parts, cannibalized except for the receiver and sold off, and then those parts were replaced with old surplus, a cheap stock installed, and then that was sold off. I think unless you were around when some monkey got his paws on something, and watched him work his magic, it will remain a mystery.

I get mine out once or twice a week- wipe them off and clean them up even when I haven't shot them for months or even years. I worry more about over oiling them than anything else. Im always handling mine and shouldering them. Especially my 21s. They sure make me feel good. Brings back good memories, too.

My farming family members were never nostalgic about guns, fancy guns or new equipment. So things got used for what they were built to be used. I had a grandfather who took his mid grade Parker duck hunting for 40 plus years. It got used, but not abused. He had a Montgomery Wards double, out in the barn for varmints and unwanted guest. That gun ended up as a rusty mess, even if it had very few shells shot in it. I rescued it, when I figured out it was a private labeled Baker with barrels thicker than pump pipe. It cleaned up well and has been used a lot on Sporting Clay's. That gun was choked .045 and .050 with barrels that even after striking to remove fifty years of rust were greater than .040 in the thinnest area. That gun was built to be used, abused and neglected.

My first gun was a Winchester Model 12, in 28 gauge, Solid rib, Skeet gun. A rare(ish) gun and trust me it got used as a kid. Not abused but used. I shot 1,000 loads year hunting with it. I know because I bought two cases of shells every year and back then small bore cases were 500 not the modern flats op 250 and every shell got shot by years end. Had that gun been a safe queen it would be worth two times what is today, as it is being a desirable, collectable gun. I got a hundred grand of enjoyment out of that gun and still have it. I did put new feather crotch stock on it but refuse to refinish the metal. It earned those scars and deserves to show them off.

I shoot mostly Winchester Model 42's these days. My two most often used guns are a High Grade and a real Pigeon Grade. A lot of Pigeon Grades I see are not real, only upgrades of guns, upgraded later. My guns get thousands of shells a year shot through them every year and the normal wear and finish wear is starting to show up despite my best efforts. But I love shooting them and enjoy how nice they look. Perhaps in a better life they both could have been a safe queen and be as pristine in 50 years as the day they were made. But in this life, they are guns built to be shot and enjoyed. I freely let anyone try them with shells I will give them. Nice guns were built to be enjoyed and I intend to enjoy them as long as I can. My kids can lament the loss value if they want but I gave all five of them a college education so they can work and buy their own toys. Mine are going to get used.

Like the example above, my father shot pheasants out the window of our 1937 Dodge. Dad did manual labor in a factory, so didn't need the exercise. And had started hunting during the Depression, when pheasants, rabbits, and squirrels were meat on the table. We had 2 guns in my family when I grew up. Dad's was an Eastern Arms .410 single shot. Forend taped to the barrel. My older brother had the same gun except from Stevens and in much better shape. I inherited that one. We did take care of our guns as far as cleaning them after use went. And when I had my first job (pumping gas and fixing tires), I saved my money and bought a 20ga Savage 420 OU. Made a Marlin 90 handle like a Purdey in comparison. Eventually bought one of the then new Ithaca SKB sxs . . . and since then my life has gone to hell. Expensive or not, I do take care of them.