A 26" barrel 5 1/4# 12g is just too weird to last. How much did Churchill's XXVs weigh?
Sporting Life July 12, 1890
https://digital.la84.org/digital/collection/p17103coll17/id/50090/rec/29Oswald von Lengerke and His Wonderful Work With a Gun
Oswald von Lengerke is one of the famous brothers of the shooting family of that name. There are six of them Fred, Justus, Herman Oswald, George and Karl. With the exception of George, all are excellent shots. George's tastes are for athletics. As the others are masters in their choice of pastimes, so George is master of his. He is an athlete all through and all over.
Oswald is some 5ft. 7in. in height, is broad shouldered, and within the last few years has become stout, weighing some 160 pounds. The exercise he takes makes his flesh as hard as iron. At the traps his position is a sound one. He throws the left foot forward, bending at the knee considerably. The right foot is thrown backward, bearing but little weight. His gaze becomes fixed when he is at the score. As he says pull the jaws come together with a snap, the teeth close like a vise, and its ten to one when the shot is made that it is a successful one. He is good at either inanimate targets or live birds. His best score at the former is 97 out of 100, shooting at 80 single and ten pairs; at the latter 33 killed out of 35 shot at. This was in a match with Charles Heath, of Newark, for $200 a side, shooting Heath out on the thirty-fifth bird.
He has also killed as many English snipe on the Hackensack and Newark meadows in New Jersey as any man of his age living. Were it not for the cares of a busy life he would seldom be seen without a gun in his hand. It is not a hobby with him; it is an absorbing passion.
His favorite weapon is a hammerless breechloader, 5 1/4 pounds in weight, 25 inches in length of barrel, 12 gauge. Oswald is a firm believer in the light gun, especially for field work.
Von Lengerke & Detmold were general gun dealers, and imported and marketed Francottes.
See Stand 77 at the first annual Sportsmen's Exposition opened in Madison Square Garden, New York, May 13 19, 1895
https://digital.la84.org/digital/collection/p17103coll17/id/47863 
