doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Old versus new(er) guns?

Canvasback said:

"While I don't hunt them exclusively, I do hunt waterfowl enough to have a hunting cabin in a marsh. I like to shoot old guns in every conceivable situation, if I can. For waterfowl, I do have an early 1980's Wingmaster when I really need it but prefer to use one of my three M12 Winchesters from the late 1950's or one of my two Remington 1894 B grades or my Remington 1900.

Those SxS have tons of barrel walls left and are 7.5 pounds plus. The stocks have been fixed (all Remington 1894's and 1900's have cracks) and glass-bedded and I shoot Kent Tungsten and Bismuth out of them. No steel out of anything....even my few (one) modern guns."

My late season diver gun is a 10 ga Rem 1894 of approx. 12 lbs. Due to the education I have picked up here and in reading the DGJ, I knew going into old gun ownership that it was not going to be as simple as owning and shooting a newer steel compatible gun. Researching low pressure loads, acquiring hand reloading tools, changing my gun cleaning habits from the simple wipedown of the chrome lined barrels to something a lot more time consuming all came with ownership.

Is older better? Some days and situations, yes, some no.

Mergus

I keep getting newer and newer guns to try and find one that works without me messing with it. I think that the needy ones find me.
I spent a lot of time on LC Smith's, and they all needed work. Got a Fox, needed work, got a Parker, needed work.
So I got an Uggie. It needed firing pins and stock work....
So I bought an AYA 4/53. The safety reset when it fired. An easy fix, but still I wanted something that I didn't have to take apart.
I just got an unfired 1993 production Merkel model 8. So far this may end up being the gun I don't have to mess with?
Here's hoping.
CHAZ

My best hayfork has the original long springy handle with the curvatures in the right places to fit the hand & spring to the work easily.

My best set of wood chisels were blacksmith made in the old Tokyo prefecture circa mid to late 1800, like Samurai swords.

My nicest working blacksmith hammers are all old, as is my springiest best ringing anvil.

Just saying this to make the point that quality old hand tools have a feel in their function that lets you know that it was designed & made by people that actually used them. They seem to hold better edges, fit the hand well, cut & swing smoothly, work with you & enhance the work experience, are not thick & clumsy but fine & graceful. They combine function with art & appearance to a level that I do not see in most new hand tools unless they are a reproduction of the old tool. Like Veritas wood planes or Pfeil chisels & Japanese pull saws.
British doubles are the same type of tool to me, & to buy all that functional beauty & grace for the sums generally asked is a bargain & gift of God.
O.M

mergus: well said!

Well Mr. Lloyd when are you going to call Mr. James Purdey & Sons and order your new shotgun?

That's the only option left and with a three year waiting period, or is it four years now, you better get started.

Edit:

Deleted - got my threads mixed up.

It's not on a tablet, Moses, but I'll take it as it is. Thank you.

Treblig:

New Spanish and new Turkish (the Turk is mine). The price of the lower gun wouldn't even cover the cost for a fitting at Audley House.

First time I took my middle son duck hunting in SE MO I was using a 102 year old Lefever with Bismuth shot. The guide was not impressed to say the least. Good hunters used black plastic semi autos with 3" or 3-1/2" shells. I went 6x6 for my limit. My son shooting a Remington 1900 went 6x7 for his limit. After that the guide was a little less picky.

I like hunting with old doubles, more so if there is a personal connection to family or the past. Last year I opened Dove season with my late uncles .410 Crescent double. For the last five decades of his life he was too crippled to hunt due to childhood Polio and Rumatic Fever. Holding a pencil was hard swinging a gun impossible buy he kept that gun and cleaned it every year like this year he might go one more time. He never shot Dove with it but he was pure magic on quail with it I am told. He had it choked light Skeet and tight full. Not a gun worth any money at all but one that I find priceless for family value. Funny thing is that he never accepted a handicapped sticker, he never considered himself handicapped so the rest of our family just never saw him as handicapped, just Uncle Jr.

Look at that curl!!! I could warm up real fast to a shotgun that has that wood on it.

That Spaniard is no slouch either.