doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com George Gibbs

Under-levers, side-levers and snap-action-levers give quite a bit away to top-levers.
The damascus print is in keeping with this gun.

S Grant, known for its best side-lever guns(and they made really great guns), could never get into the chase with the big boys, because of the side-lever. Grant top-levers were looked upon as oddities within the name, and never received much play.

Probably look fine with coveralls, Joe, long as you don't screw choke it for turkeys.

jack

jOe, The gun was originally proofed at 13/1 both barrels,that signifies something less than .729, and they now were re-proofed at
18.7 which covers .736-.740 ,so some bore metal has been removed .
Might be plenty left but I would check current bore size and minimum barrel wall thickness. Rib says manufactured for George Gibbs,this applied to most makers,Gibbs just chose to tell people.
LOP of 14" over a pad/extention??,little short for me but if the shoe fits etc.Looks like a good quality shooter with recent nitroed original barrels.Price seems fair

Thanks for the info Terry.
I got the gun today with a Stan Baker bore gauge both barrels measure a consistant .735 the right is choked to .729 and the left .694. I don't have access to wall thickness gauge I took some measuresments with a dial caliper it's about .065 in front of the chamber and about .035 just behind the choke. The bores are like glass.

With the 18.7 proof and .735 bore diameter would it be fair to say the gun was still in proof ?

HJ:
That gun certainly has what's called curb appeal in the real estate business and this is coming from someone who normally doesn't like the look of back action locks. I think this is a dynamite looking gun! I want to get a rig like this someday and scare the hell out of the other guys while shooting trap. I hope this works out for you and,at the very least,ought to be just the medicine for those pesky rabbits that inhabit turnip patches!!
Jim

jOe, it sounds like the gun measures the same as when re-proofed, so definately in proof,which is all you can ask.Souinds like .041 choke in the left barrel which is probably a result of the overboring and if you keep it you might want to open it up a bit.Not sure how you arrived at wall thickness without a proper gauge but if you do the,subtract inside from outside and divide by 2 ,be aware that the thinnest area is usually about 6-8 inches from the muzzle and this method can miss a thin spot on the outside of the barrels where the dial calipers can't measure.Overall it looks like a pretty decent gun and buy.

Is there a serial number production date chart for Gibbs shotguns the serial number on this is gun is in the 1400's. My friend has an Alex Henry that looks to be it's twin could it be built by Alex Henry ?

Hj - away from the "lIbErry" so can't look for Gibbs serial/date. Henry and Gibbs most likely bought in the same/similar action forgings, barrel tubes, locks, and assorted bits and pieces; it could be that they both bought-in these guns in the white from Birmingham. They then finished up said parts into very similar guns. Gibbs and Henry seem to have had shops of similar size and most likely did similar work. However, it is always possible that Alex had a bit of slack time or an extra gun and did some work for George - it was a trade. If the guns appear equal, they will be of equal quality. Gibbs and Henry both achieved BV2.

British Gunmakers Vol.2 puts the date at approx.1887. The information on the maker and this series of serial numbers
suggests that the gun was built inhouse by Gibbs.