Down through the years, I have looked at hundreds of old doubles that were worn and well used, but the forearm wood and often, the wood around the front of the trigger guard is extremely scarred. It is so much worse than the overall condition of the rest of the gun that it sometimes looks like that wood you see in National Geographic on Viking boats dug up by archeologists.
Does anyone have any theories for this extreme wear or damage. I have heard that some hunters would hold down barbed wire fences with their guns' forearm while crossing the fence. Yet I don't see scratches on the forearm iron or trigger plate bottom metal suggesting this is the culprit. Maybe porcupines getting into the gun safe and chewing on the salty sweat soaked wood?
