doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com 117 yr old sporting clays gun

I did a round ea with these old girls yesterday, the colt was wonderful to shoot., fits me well, handles great and with the 7/8 RST's almost no recoil, even with the hard rubber butt. The little fox on the other hand beat the hell out of me. I really don't like light 20's. It was handy on a very fast rt to left crosser as it swings like lighting. I think the colt is my new go to clays gun, best I've ever done.

Devrep,
Congrats on finding the one!

Am I the only one finding SxS gunfit a bit more mysterious than the Off Topic guns? I've spent a lot more time shooting the OT shottys, so that's surely part of the puzzle, but...

"devrep",
I always feel bad when I hear of a man getting abused by a heartless 20ga. SxS. In this case, I'd do my best to help alleviate your pain and suffering should you decide to part with that inconsiderate little Fox in the near future. Please feel free to contact me (even if just for a few words of consolation) at: roger@nacz.com

Frank, what exactly is the difference in recoil sensation between a six pound 20 shooting 7/8 ounce loads at 1200, a six pound 16 shooting 7/8 ounce loads at 1200, and a 6 3/4 or 7 pound 12 shooting 1 ounce loads at 1200? The answer is "pretty much nothing unless the stock dimensions or clothing is different". The comfort level for most shooters comes into the acceptable zone when the gun gets above 7 1/2 pounds and the loads remain light. Don't let anyone talk you out of the little 20 Fox. Just learn to feed it light and wear some clothes when you shoot it. Believe me, the rest of us are enjoying their 20s and 28s and you should be enjoying yours too. Murphy

Interesting! I hunted Prairie grouse in the sandhills of Nebraska for about 6 days. I started out with a lil DS16 Lefever, and did poorly, think I was shooting too quickly. Put it up and went to a "G" with 30 inch bbls, much heavier and went 3 for 3......I hauled out a bunch of doubles when I got home and lined em up on the dining room table, according to drop. I was amazed to find that the 2 I shoot best had the widest variation. A 28, almost straight at just under 2" and the "G" at right on 3"...

Why not just use a classic sporting clays gun. I'm getting into Remi 3200s now before they follow Mod 21 in pricing trends, luv them. I don't think they made many of them.

devrep: would like to add ultra close up pics of the damascus pattern of your Colt to the 'Colt and Remington Damascus' album if you could send me pics by jpg attachment to revdoc2@cox.net and thanks!
http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?p=999&gid=17067005

I have used mine for the past 3 years and finally won in 2007. I won with a 67 score so this tells you the caliber of our group but its all fun. I use a slip on leather recoil pad to add some length. I use data from the IMR handbook and use both a 1 oz. and 1 1/8 load under 6000 psi. Both of my Colt 1883's have 28 in. tubes and would prefer a 30 for this but a 28 is a dream to handle. Both of my 1883s are a grade 1 ( I may sell one) but the later one made has a flat bottom pistol grip instead of the round. Yours has a style I have yet to see. Did you say what length barrels you have? Mike

Seems to me to be important for each shooter to work out for himself what will give him the most pleasure from each shooting outting and which gun is most likely to deliver said pleasure. He needs consider if he will be happiest with a beautiful/stylish gun, one with some personal connection, one that he finds easy to shoot, or is he looking for the highest score possible. An understanding of the available guns will aid the selection.

On big guns - I shot well at the VC with an Ithaca NID 4E trap gun. It has a recent CSM 1 1/2" pad and two 5/16" spacers to make the 13 1/2" stock fit me for LOP. Drop of 1 1/4" - 2 1/8" is OK, but it needs some cast-off. It weighs in at 9# 2oz, balances 5 1/2" in front of the single trigger, has an unmounted swing of 2.95, mounted swing of 11.73, and a HWR of 12.24. As I said - a big gun. Curiously, I shot the 130+ targets over some 3 hours without fatigue. In this case, I wanted to shoot a high score (for me) to support the Carolinas Vintagers in the Chapter Challenge. So, the (possibly) higher score than I likely would have shot with a more stylish gun made for a more fun day. Anyway, that is my story and I'm stickin' to it.

Bill, the Colt weighs in at 7lb 4oz, the Fox is 6lb 1oz. Believe me I could feel the dif, It was about 92 degrees and incredibly humid (had just stopped raining) so I was only wearing a T-shirt and sweating in that. Guess I'm just a wuss.

Doc, I believe you already have these pics from the Parker BBS.
Colt model 1883, serial #5132, manu 1890.

Mike, my Colt has 30" tubes, .735/.734 bores and is choked .025/.011 (Left/rt). It has 14" lop, 1 3/4" dac and 2 5/8" dah.

Not the top one Frank-beautiful! And griz just sent me a great pic of his Edmond's refinished c. 1886 10g. We'll get them both added and thanks!

Having damascus barrels like this, who would want steel fluid barrels? Simply gorgeous. Colt's in this condition are as scarce as hen's teeth.

Frank, I'll give you some clues from the "Dark Side" of competition shooting. In hot weather, never shoot in only one layer of T-Shirts. Shoot with a T-Shirt over a T-Shirt no matter how hot it is. The movement between layers keeps your shoulder from absorbing the friction of recoil on a sweaty shoulder. OH!, hot you say? Change the shirts as they get wet into a new pair of dry shirts. Your comfort level will change to "cooler" and the friction against the shoulder will cease. I shoot 200 bird per day skeet shoots with as many as eight T-Shirts if I can't dry the first four by the afternoon flight. If the two layers of T-Shirts is too much for you, cut the inner shirt off below the elbow so just the shoulder is helping you out. Let me know how it works. I've been using this system for years and it eliminates blisters and abrasion at the "pit". Alternative is to wear a PAST strap vest like everyone should wear in Argentina. Unfortunately, they don't have the "look" for skeet or sporting clays. Bill Murphy

Some people like to shoot their guns w/o special reloads or custommo. We also like our eyes and appendages intact. That's what those barrels looked like when they were made, give us back that patina of age!

if the barrels are sound and enough thickness, dont need "special reloads or custom ammo"...light loads work fine without fear of loss of limbs...BTW...devrep.. I like the looks of the damascsus pattern without the patina. I have been searching for a qualty Colt for years and havent found anything as nice as yours..great damascus pattern...great gun..youre lucky that you found her.
Bill

As to the "patina of age", I left the receiver as I found it, old and grey with some slight freckling, I like it. However, the barrels were not an option at they were "dead". There were also 8 or 9 dings in the barrels. I had Kirk Merringtom relay the ribs and lift the dents and had Dale E. reblack them. The buttstock was also beat to hell with a long gouge down one side and about a million dings so I cleaned it up some but left the checking alone (there are still a lot of dings in the checked areas. I'm happy with the result and sure that the "patina" will return someday (I may be dead by then). I found this colt in an old shop in Portland Oregon last December and feel that I at least put it back in service.

So by "reblacking" the barrels you were able to restore the pattern? And these had a brown patina with only the trained eye able to spot the pattern of damascus before? If so I may have to have my 1883 Colt also restored. Neat.

These are a slightly different Damascus from another 1883 Colt that I Browned(Blacked) for a friend of mine a few months ago.