doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com OT: hammerless single bbl

Until I can afford a Parker repro, I need an inexpensive [+/- $200] shotgun. It needs to be light [<5.5lbs] as my SMP can hunt all day, and my battery of duck guns or the old 311 are just to heavy for my bad should to walk with all day.

I don't like hammer guns, so what are the makes of single bbls available. Already know of the Baikal/stevens 220/Beretta-CVA folder. What else is out there??

Thanks - Gary

Lots of Winchester model 37's out there that ought to fit your desires perfectly. Solid American guns at bargain basement prices.

Here are two hammerless

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=299850935

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=300037873

Here are hammers

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=298879457

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=300630328

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=300584993

If you do not like a hammer single shot, have you considered a bolt action shotgun, they are light.

Mike

LtCol - havn't seen that configuration of a western field, arnt' westrnfields a private lable of monkey and wards?? I wonder what mfg it was??

I should have said it was for grouse & doodles, would be a shame to bob that old girls tube.

The winchesters a great guns - but have hammers.

That Western Field is a rare bird. Buy that one. Look at the condition. The OP asked for hammerless guns and you guys tell him about Model 37s. The Model 37 is a hammer gun. I don't know what is wrong with the Savage Model 220. It is a neat gun.

OK, you can fight with the Winchester boys

Look at 1936 in the following post

http://www.winchestercollector.org/guns/w-history.shtml

The Model 37 is a very well made, strong, and reliable single shot shotgun. Made in 12, 16, 20, 28, & .410 from 1937 through 1963 in New Haven, Conn. Make from steel, hence the name "Steelbilt" (stamped on the barrel). Has a so called semi-hammerless (striker type) action There were 1,015,554 made.

This is hammerless, and blows the Savage 220 and the Winchester 37 away, quality wise:

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=300515507

They turn up in 16, 20 and .410, also. This guy is a little high on price, but, the gun is high condition. Chokes are always pretty tight, factor a brutal reaming into the final price.
I've owned one for 40 years. Decent single shots.

Best,
Ted

When I see an external hammer that has to be cocked manually I call it a hammer gun. How is it semi-hammerless? Not picking a fight, just trying to understand.

SRH

Ted, that Beretta type folding single is a real pain to shoot because of the recoil, even in a 20ga. In addition, the under lever is hard to operate on every one I've seen.

There's also the Ithaca Lefever model 2 which is a hammerless singleshot. My preference is the Savage Model 220, or maybe the Baikal...Geo

Winchester used the term Semi-Hammerless because it does not have a hammer striking a firing pin. What looks like a hammer is a cocking piece for a coil spring loaded striker. It is thus hammerless in the sense it is striker fired, but it has to be hand cocked with the Hammer looking cocking piece. Hammerless & self cocking are not necessarily one & the same. Lefever called his first gun with internal hammers, hammerless, even though those hammers had to be hand cocked by a long side lever. The vast majority of guns we refer to as hammerless actualy just have self-cocking internal hammers.
The Stevens model 315 with its strikers was a rue hammerless gun which was also self cocking, A double though, not a single.