doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com The Worst Things You Can Do To A Double

I forgot my favorite no-no; port the barrels.

In no particular order:

sling swivel studs
beavertail forend
cheek piece and/or monte carlo
ventilated pad
ventilated rib
single trigger

Your mileage will most assuredly vary. The list is kept to aesthetical preferences. Mechanical no-nos should go without saying.

That would seem to render a lot of fine German guns and best Boss guns worthless. Cheek pieces and sling swivel studs are all but standard equipment on vintage German guns, and Boss STs may be the most complicated mechanism ever built for a double gun. Boss would not have spent so much time and effort designing something that complex unless a lot of their customers wanted one.

Which is not the same as saying it works well.

English single triggers have a well deserved reputation. Speaking of which, that just reminded me of another bad thing that can happen to a gun, but, this one is done by the manufacturer-chiseling half inch tall letters on the side of a gun about some stupid patent, with one of the words abbreviated, and surrounding them with beautiful and delicate scroll.


Best,
Ted

The worst thing I can think of is not doing what you want to do to it. The question then comes: what do you really want to do to it?

I am no fan of STs - only one of my guns has one, and I have replaced the STs on two of my guns with DTs.

If you view the pigeon ring as the crucible for testing vintage shotgun design, a lot of Brit pigeon guns had/have STs. Given the stakes involved, it seems unlikely competitors would have requested STs on their guns without a high level of confidence that they worked when needed. What subsequent restocking and other gunsmithing did to some of those STs is a different story.

But the larger point is that there are a lot of very fine , very expensive vintage Purdey, H&H, Boss, WR, etc. shotguns out there with OEM STs, which would contradict a claim that an ST is the worst thing you could do to a double.

A good friend of mine recently bought a 2-barrel set James Woodward and son with patented single trigger and the gun has that engraved on the bottom of the receiver. This gun is fabulous! And he got it cheap considering what it is.....likely because of the ST. Beautiful balance and just a magnificent shotgun.

About those ugly sling swivels, in the past I�ve always taken them off feeling they were both ugly and unneeded. However, this year I hunted mearns� quail in some rugged areas on the south side of Arizona�s Huachuca Mountains. The fellow I was with was from Washington State and an avid chukar hunter. He claimed that much of the topography we were scrambling over was very similar to the type of areas he normally hunted chukars in. The first day I noticed when the going got rough he�d carry the gun on his shoulder in the sling. That way he�d have both hands free for balance or to catch himself when his footing slipped. Since we were using his pointing dog, wild flushes were uncommon. Halfway through that first day I was wishing I had one of those ugly slings on my gun. That evening I remounted my sling swivels and purchased a sling. The next day was much much better. I still think slings are ugly but I guess in the end, unless you�re a fool, function over form wins out.

Steve

Really? Don't you think the gap is rather wide between "aesthetic preferences" and "worthless"?

I try not to be so "elitist" as to impose my preferences on others or ridicule theirs.
Mike