doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Who made SxS trap guns?

SKB, the hammer gun you had, was most likely a Syracuse era gun from 1886-1888. The Trap Gun butt plate was actually advertising that L.C. Smith, Maker, did to promote their guns as being suitable not only in the Field, but at the Traps.
Actually a hammer gun had a dog on point with it's right foot on a rock. The Trap Gun butt plate, dog looking a falling duck was on the Hammerless guns of that period.

L.C. Smith made a side by side Olympic Grade Trap Gun, only 26 were made, but they would make any gun to shoot the way you wanted. All you had to do was give them the type of shell you were using and tell them how many pellets you wanted in a 30" circle, at a certain distance for each barrel and they would make it for you.
As stated the Trap Grade model was just that,a grade model, and I have seen one listed as having 26" barrels, not an ideal Trap Gun.

As Miller stated, some were ordered with no safeties, most people call these Live Bird Guns, for a while a 3 position safety was used and in the 20's I believe it became an option.

Chuck, your 20 ga with the 32" barels, did you ever get a letter for it? I'm wondering if this gun was ordered for that Duck Club in California, I think they specialized in small bore long barrels, mainly Parkers.
There were not many 20 ga "elsies" with 32" barrels, quite rare.

I have a high grade Tobin that was built as a trap gun. It has a single trigger that is set up to shoot right barrel only in one position, or right-left in the other position. I also have an LC Smith 2E two barrel set, with the 30" barrels set up to shoot higher than the point of aim, so it was either for trap or live birds I would guess. I'm not a very good trap shooter, but I have shot 23 with this gun, and that is about as good as I can do with anything.

Is the single trigger in your Tobin original to the gun? When the selector is in the position you mentioned first, what happens when the trigger is pulled the second time? Your description would suggest that the gun will not fire the second barrel when in that position. Very interesting trigger.

Ithaca was heavy into the trap gun business but never offered the NID in a trap grade. Any grade could be ordered in trap configuration though.
The M-37 was offered in Trap Grade but, again, it was a grade only. Certainly it came in trap configuration but could be ordered with any barrel length or choke. For example, I have a M-37T with a 26 inch full choked barrel, Also had one with a 26 inch skeet choked barrel and a 30 inch full choked barrel. Sadly, I sold it in my foolish youth.
Here is a representation of Ithaca's 'Big Three' in the trap offerings.

Here's my Smith Eagle; bt, vent rib, monte carlo, 8 1/2 lbs.

http://www.shotgunworld.com/bbs/cpg1410/displayimage.php?pid=4925&fullsize=1

Bill: As far as I can tell, the oddball trigger is original to the Tobin. I first thought that there was a problem with it, so I took the gun apart to check it out. I had a drawing of the normal Tobin SST, and when comparing the actual gun to the drawing, it was obvious that the trigger was never machined or built to fire the left barrel, then the right, because the parts weren't there to do so. It has been several years since I looked at it, so I can't go into greater detail from memory.

We would like to see a picture of the Tobin trigger from the outside. I, for one, have never seen a single trigger Tobin, or many Tobins of any kind.

After Hunter Arms introducd the Double Barrel Trap gun in 1920, the 'Trap Package' included a beavertail Schnabel forend with the reinforced barrel lug, Automatic Ejectors, Hunter One-Trigger, standard recoil pad, and two ivory sights and could be ordered on any grade gun. The ventilated rib on the double barrel gun was introduced in 1925, and promoted for trap shooting.



More infro here http://www.picturetrail.com/sfx/album/view/17127707

And for the guns used by the c. 1900 Top Guns see http://docs.google.com/View?id=dfg2hmx7_311kp75d7hd
Unfortunately, Sporting Life stopped reporting the guns used at tournaments and the GAH about 1898. Most of the information I found thereafter was in advertisments by powder, shell, and gun makers.



Crosby was shooting a Smith by 1900 but left Hunter Arms for a Parker in 1906, Fred Gilbert did the same in 1902.

And later, Crosby shot an Ithaca. Fickle, fickle.

And BTW two of the biggest guns, Rolla Hiekes and J.A.R. Elliott used Winchester 1893 and 1897 Repeaters.
Hiekes was so good he shot in 1895 a Lefever, then a Smith, then a Winchester 1893 Repeater, then a 1897 Repeater (winning the first Grand American at Clay Targets in New York City June 1900), then a Remington pump, then his Smith again taking 3rd place in the 1902 GAH at Live Birds. In 1905 he began shooting a Remington Autoloading Shotgun and was High Professional at the 1906 and 1908 Ohio State Shoots.
Neaf Apgar left his Smith for an Ithaca SBT.