doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com BP in damascus barrel sxs

In general, any old double with such short (less than 27-28 inches) barrels and open chokes has been modified. "Excellent bores" in any old shotguns is cause for suspecion of having been reamed, maybe lots. That is why I have taken to requesting bore diameters, measured with a bore gauge. I doubt that you will get such information from this dealer. Proceed with much caution. Frankly, I would look elsewhere.

IF you are going to shot BP with card and fiber wads, be aware that in a bore reamed enough, the card and fiber wads will not seal well enough to give decently tight and even patterns, maybe not even for the undemanding CAS use. There MAY still be enough wall thickness for the guns to be "safe".

But, getting good patterns could well require modern one-peice plastic wads -- I have two such old hammer guns -- the sellers claimed not to know or suspect that the bores had been reamed lots. Both do shoot nice patterns with one-peice plastic wads and have been used heavily and successfully with such loads.

Niklas

Since I have about completely cut out plastic in my shooting, I will exclusively be using fiber wads. I am experimenting with a template to make shot cups out of heavy paper or cereal boxes.

Rudy,

If you succeed to make paper shot cups, make some shallow ones, only 3-5 mm deep, and put them over the powder, under nitro card wad. Then you will have a gas seal wad that predates plastic version (on the bottom of one peice wads). This was worked out long, long ago (decades, century+?) to provide gas seal for bores not sealed properly by ordinary card and fiber wads. Sometime between WW1 and WW2, some USA ammo companies started to use these paper gas seal wads. I remember them from 1940s and 1950s, even later in Winchester-Western shotshells. There was once such gas seal wads from Sweden sold in USA, known by some as Swedish cup wads.

There are lots of ways to "beat the devil around the barn".

Niklas

Thanks Niklas. WIll try that. Cut down on litter! And back to guns, This looks like it has some potential. And yes, I know it is not an original coach gun. Sellers think we will believe anything. He might as well have branded Wells Fargo into the thing! ;-)

https://www.gunsamerica.com/guns/976966065.htm#

This is almost identical to a gun I had years ago, but never shot. But mine was loose and had been cut to an illegal length (by someone a long time ago), so my gunshop guy scrapped it for parts.

I seem to recall earlier in the thread Rudy stated he would be using Mag-Tech brass shells. These would require oversize wads, so as long as wall thickness is safe would allow for a good bit of honing without an adverse effect on pattern. In fact guns purposely built for the brass shells were built with oversize bores. Many of the older Lefevers, Parkers etc will be found with these larger bores, & not necessarily because of honing.

From the guns you are posting Rudy I'm begining to wonder if you are really looking for a sporting hammer gun ?

2-piper,

You could easily be correct about the oversize wads needed for the mag tech brass hulls.

I do keep remembering meeting the son of a hunter and target shooter that owned a really nice Parker and used it for all his shotgun shooting for decades, BP and later early bulk powders. Seemed he much preferred the old thin brass hulls (vs factory loads in paper hulls) and his own reloads for duck and goose hunting because they killed much better. I can only think that the larger wads sealed much better, giving tighter and/or more even patterns. That gun never had the bores reamed -- the gun, like all the others his father owned -- was very well taken care of and still in excellent condition when I saw it, at least 30 years later.

Niklas

Parker made some great hammer guns. However, the lifter you posted is one of the earliest versions that has a hard, sharp angle between the water table and standing breech. These are known for receivers cracking right at that point because the stress is concentrated there. The next version and all subsequent ones had a slight radius at that junction which solved the problem.

Rabbit mentioned the Remington hammergun getting blown up by "Nitro". I know he is aware of it, just forgot to include they were somewhere between double and triple overcharges of Nitro! And it still took several to blow it. The owner was man enough to admit that he made a mistake in the powder hopper. Otherwise, an innocent gun would have been blamed and added to the "unsafe damascus" stories.

Nope! Looking for a goodsolid, vintage hammergun to shoot BP in Cowboy Action. See quite a few on the line. So as you can tell, I am not in the same category as you collectors, just looking in the right place for the advice and expertice I need to make an informed decision. Thanks for all of the help. And I am willing to entertain offers on guns you may want to cull from your own collections, if they meet my needs.

No offense Rudy but I won't even let a cowboy action shooter touch any of my guns.