I'm with the vast majority of posters here in that I prefer the length of my vintage gun barrels to remain original; and although I've never cut a gun barrel myself and have no plans to do so, I still cringe when I remember as a kid my old man hack-sawing 2 1/2" off the 30" barrel of his old Win Model 37. But I do make the occasional exception when I purchase a vintage double; and yesterday was one of those exceptions. As you know I have this crazy infatuation for guns made by the Syracuse Arms Company; and was thus inspired to take pity on a battered and abused, but extremely rare, SAC Grade 3 12-bore with cut barrels. The gun in question is a mid-grade piece, that would most likely have shipped to its original owner in 1903. In 1903 the Grade 3 was a $50 gun at retail; but this example was ordered with $10 optional auto-ejectors (but no $5 ejector on/0ff switch); so it would have been a $60 gun. But the most unusual element of this gun was that it was special ordered with Krupp Steel barrels; a feature that was never cataloged for the Grade 3, and an option that would have increased its original price to some unknown degree. I've never come across a SAC gun lower than a Grade A (other than on "lunch-box" gun) with this unusual feature; so, when this feature is combined with the fact that the original owner's 70 year old daughter has been located and may be able to share of history of the gun and her father, was all the impetus I needed to own this gun (and it was cheap). As the gun currently stands,finishes have turned mostly brown with age, it's non-original and once replaced PG stock has been broken again and is now held together with stove bolts, the daughter of the original owner had the hammer springs removed at some point; and at some other point in its long history, those beautiful Krupp barrels were shortened from 28" to 26" (assume original length was 28", as the mid bead is 14" from the breech). But barrel bores still remain bright and un-pitted, most original engraving remains sharp; and this gun will provide the basis for a great upland "project gun" should I decide at some point to restore the gun. In fact, I can already envision the finished piece; now to find the necessary cash!
