doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Best American SxS

Top guns, and gunners, 1895-1912 or so. We can know what the live bird and inanimate target shooters used (better ignore all the Winchester and Remington pumps ):
https://docs.google.com/View?id=dfg2hmx7_311kp75d7hd

Fit N Finish overall best gun

1. Lefever
2. LC Smith
3. Parker

Reliability etc.

1.Winchester 21. They are truly hard to wear out.
2.A.H.Fox
3.Ithaca-Best gun for the money and I've never had one break.

While I have a couple of safes full of doubles by A.H. Fox Gun Co., Remington Arms Co., Ithaca Gun Co., Tobin Arms Manufacturing Co. (LTD), Baltimore Arms Co., Baker Gun & Forging Co., Royal Arms Co., Lefever Arms Co., Parker Bros., Colts Pat'd Fire Arms Mfg. Co., American Arms Co. Whitney hammerless, Philadelphia Arms Co., Fox Gun Co., Balto., Md., U.S.A., Crescent Fire Arms Co., and CSMC RBLs, far an away the best American SXS is available right now (or a few year wait), the A.Galazan Round Body Full Sidelock SxS --

Those are fine guns. I didn't know Galazan made a Round Body Sidelock SxS. Is this their own design?

Now I'm not sure what the story is, as I don't see them listed since Galazan Catalogue No. 7 --



However, they have regularly appeared on the CSMC calanders, the last one I see was January 2010. I handled one at Las Vegas this January. I toured the old CSMC factory when they were new, and Tony seemed really proud of them, showing off all their features.

I happened to be at the CSMC factory in I believe 2002(??) and Tony showed me the very first action to made for this gun. Impressive. They were still in the old building at that time

mr.Researcher nice gun but time will tell.it has no history the other guns have stood the test of time well have to wait and see.mc

As to reliability and function;

A couple of years ago, Hal Hare commented that his CSMC 21 had done well for 40,000 rds, having gone back once to have the trigger pulls increased. I imagine it's well over 50K now if it's still going.

For my 1926 Fox 12ga, I've documented 38,400 rounds since Jan, '08. That includes ~2,000 each of Win Xtralites and Rem 1 ounce Nitro27's. I had two trigger malfunctions in the first 8,000 rounds due to Red Dot powder residue in the action. The design allows dirt to enter the action through the watertable. The toplever has migrated about .060" toward center (still right). It still grabs a 0.0015" feeler gauge and won't let go. Showing some wear on the case colors and triggerguard now.

My 1932 Fox 16ga has digested 32,600 rounds in 9 years, including over 15,000 factories. Toplever approaching center now, no other issues.

Altogether, >80K rounds thru 5 Foxes with one broken hammer toe.

Go and look a Bill McPhail's collection of American hammer guns. You won't see an American hammerless gun that can touch some of those for quality.

Diggory has a point. Eliminate the automatic cocking and ejecting system, and you have a gun that will last forever. However, some of our automatic cocking guns seem like they are going to last forever. Longevity of our guns is not a big problem. Getting the time to shoot them is the big problem. Most of my life, I have fired a shotgun at least three days a week and have participated in five or more competitive disciplines on an irregular basis. I have never succeeded in shooting a side by side gun loose yet and that's about all I've shot for most of my life except for competitive skeet.