A good friend's dad was a quail guide in Emmanuel County, Ga, growing up. Sports from the north would come down by train and stay at Coleman's Lake Resort and ole' Tangerine (guess his hair color) would take sports quail hunting. He made more in tips than his dad made at the local saw mill. He carried a 16 ga. Ithaca pump. My buddy's dad always had six pointers. Two pups, two young dogs in training, and the 2 "pros", the made dogs. The coveyrise counter was a box of matches. For each coveyrise, Jerry would take out a match and put it in his shirt pocket. At day's end, the matches were counted. His dad wouldn't let him skin out the birds. Jerry had to pluck out each and every bird.
Here's Thomas Turner's effort to make a lightweight 12 with 2.5" chambers . Gun is 28" Damascus barrels made no latter than 1887 according to proof marks. Stock is scalloped on both sides and forend is much shorter than conventional. 6 lbs., 1 oz. I shoot low pressure loads, 7/8 oz. At some point in the gun's history, the right side of the stock was peppered with shot. Because of the quality of the photo, one can barely see the lead putty attempts to cover the holes. When asked by the man who I sent the gun for sprucing up, he asked if I wanted the shot repairs to be concealed. "Better to leave as be." was my response. If only it could say how it happened. Gil