doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com A & S Famars Gun

John,

In my limited experience the quality of these guns is spotty. Some are of the highest workmanship, as I'm sure Mal MacGregor's is. Some are not.

Some years ago I bought an A&S 28gauge SxS sidelock ejector from a California gun dealer. It was a best quality gun, supposedly. It was supposed to be unfired. I was excited to have it on the way. When it arrived I was disappointed; not in its condition, but in its build quality. It did indeed appear to be unfired. There were no marks anywhere.

My first observation was that it was built on a 20 guage frame. It looked like an attractive lady a bit broad in the beam. My calipers confirmed the action was about 0.025" wider than my Piotti Monaco 20 gauge. Then I took note of how it was jointed. There was no looseness between the barrels and action, but I could clearly see a sliver of light between the rear of the barrels on the right side and the right side of the standing breech. There was no light on the left. This would suggest someone had sprung the action with a serious overload on the right barrel, but there was no evidence of such. The gun appeared unfired. There were no marks on the standing breech anywhere. It seemed plain to me the barrels and action simply weren't properly smoked in.

I sent the gun back.

Here are a couple of photos I took of it when I had it in my possession. The date stamps on these photos are Aug. 21, 2004:





I hope this helps in some small way.

Curl