doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Purpose of 12 ga. Mod/Full SXS from 1920's?

I've never miked a 20 or 16ga standard Sterlingworth that had less than 10 thou factory choke. Even the 26" guns tend to have 10+ and 20+, or a minimum of what would have constituted IC/Mod when new.

I haven't miked a 30" 20ga SW, but the several 30" A grades were all full and fuller. Whereas 24 thou is accepted as Full in a modern 20, I've seen 36 in the older ones.

The Art of Wing Shooting: A Practical Treatise on the Use of the Shotgun
William Bruce Leffingwell 1895
http://books.google.com/books?id=e34EmE3tkfkC
http://books.google.com/books?id=e34EmE3...wer&f=false

The king of all pigeon shooters is �Capt.� John L. Brewer of Philadelphia. Mr. Brewer said to the author:

�A pigeon gun should be a modified choke � both barrels. The first barrel being bored a little closer than a cylinder, and the second a little more open than a full choke. Bored in that manner, the first barrel will kill the bird within from thirty-five to thirty-seven yards, and the second up to forty yards, and the pigeon ought not be permitted to get beyond that distance when the second barrel is fired. A man must take every legitimate advantage in pigeon shooting. A modified choke gives that advantage, and when a man uses a full choke he handicaps himself.�

It appears that in the U.S. pre-1900 'modified' meant anything other than 'choke bore' full, rather than 1/2 choke as in England.

I have a Birmingham Hammer Gun that's about Mod right Light Mod left, understand it was a common boring at the time. Fact of the matter is I never think about chokes unless the shot is very short, then use a spreader shell. My modern O/U carries Lt Mod both barrels all the time.

Boats.

I just acquired a Sterlingworth 20ga that I miked at .039 in the L barrel! Most folks did seem to like a lot of choke in the older doubles, but I've seen a few Ithacas--I think all Flues guns--choked cyl and full. (0/4 in the Ithaca choke code.)

Researcher, thanks for the additional information on Sterlingworth SN's. Makes sense that they'd block the "specials" such as the Wildfowls and Skeet and Upland guns.

What country?..proofed , if at all, for what?..Chamber length?..ejectors?, weight, bbl length...not much to go on.
Like some above have said,It would make a difference if one knew that kinda stuff...trying to guess the original purpose of the gun...even down to engraving might help tell...if its full of ducks, or has a pigeon on the rib
cheers
franc

My earliest Fox 20-gauge left North 18th Street and Windrim Avenue in 1913 bored full and full. It was the gun of an Annapolis, Maryland quail hunter and the chokes were opened to .004" and .016" by the time I got it when it was 79 years old. Those chokes work great for me and it is the Fox 20-gauge I shoot the most --



My other 20-gauge Fox doubles are .031" both sides on a 1920-vintage 30-inch gun, .027" and .032" on a 1927-vintage 28-inch gun, and .009" and .020" on a 1938-vintage 26-inch gun that has full and full crossed out on the production card.

The most choke I have in a 20-gauge gun is a 1933-vintage 4E NID with 30-inch vent rib barrels with .038" right and .042" left. Interestingly there are no choke markings on the barrel flats of that gun, and I've seen a handful of other long barrel Ithaca 20-gauges of that vintage without choke markings?!?

I have a little 0-frame Parker Bros. 26-inch 20-gauge of November 1930 vintage, still chambered for 2 1/2 inch shells, with .022" right and .028" left. Way too much choke for skeet or Quail.

The old timers liked plenty of choke in their smallbores.

Looks like 'Modified' had made it to America by 1883

Sport with Gun and Rod in American Woods and Waters by Alfred Marshall Mayer in 1883
http://books.google.com/books?id=IJcCAAAAYAAJ&q=choke#v=snippet&q=choke&f=false

1884 edition of The American Sportsman: Containing Hints to Sportsman, Notes on Shooting on p. 465
http://books.google.com/books?id=TYFCAAAAIAAJ&q=choke#v=snippet&q=choke&f=false

Here in Ohio the landscape was pretty much denuded by 1900. My father said that when growing up in the 1920s they could only hunt rabbits. He used to recall being told to go out and get a bushel of rabbits for school money-raising dinners.

To the question, M/F seems a bit harsh for rabbits, but maybe they were harder to sneak up on back then.

Did I miss it or did the OP'er still not post any info where the gun was made? , bbl"?, Chamber "? proof etc...seems you all think it an american Gun..who knows?
could be a brit 21/2" gun, or a 3" mag, who the hell knows until he tells us...this must make some difference, no?
franc

Franc, the OP refers to a "field grade", which is standard terminology--in fact, the actual model name--for some American side by sides. Not usually applied to Brit or European guns, although the OP might not be aware of that and is applying the term more generically.