doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com How would you fix this J. Lang & Son?

Rule number one in my book is to evaluate the barrels first. What are the wall thickness for your barrels? If they have decent thickness then the project is possible if too thin hang it back over a fireplace. If the barrels are thin or have deep pit stop while you are ahead. Is the gun on face? If not stop while you are ahead.

Can you shoot a short barrel gun well? Hate to spend thousands and have a gun that you do not shoot well. And this project will cost a lot of money if you are not doing the work yourself. Short barrels are different to shoot and tend to be very fast swinging.

You could have chokes added back to the barrels. A permanent soldered set of .015 and .030 would give that gun a very workable set of chokes. Please refrain from screw in chokes. they just are not kosher in a fine double to most of us.

The trigger guard can be tig welded if there has not been loss much metal. It will take time and money. It you end up with a major gap tig welding it will be harder to do and hide. I am sure someone here knows a person who could "bridge" the Atlantic with a tig weld but you it most likely look like crap. I have seen repairs that were tig welded that were almost impossible to detect. Might just be ahead of the game finding a take off trigger guard or making one from a stock trigger guard.

The stock looks to have been repaired to death. I would repair it to be used as a pattern. I would also replace the fore end. You will be surprised how much that will cost. Such a little thing is a hard to fit thing that requires a lot of time. And time is pure money on one of these projects.

I try to take a positve approach, while I do not the believe the project reasonable from an eonomics standpoint. If you have fallen for the gun it may be worth it to you.

You need to be sure that the gun will still balance when the new wood and choke tubes in place, depending on the weight of the remaining barrels that may be a challenge. If they do not balance out properly you may need to sleeve the barrels which will double your project cost.

While it is possible a master wood man can create a near invisible repair there would always be a fear in the back of your mind that it would be a fragile gun you would be afraid to put to hard use regardless of the actual strength of the repair.

These projects are rarely smart as they are labors of love. That said make sure it is something your really really want. Many of us can point to restorations or repairs that total project cost were one to two thousand over the value of the finished gun that turned out to be one I did not really like all that much and wanted to sell at a loss

I would sleeve it tp get a longer length.

Wenig's has a Hoenig as did Koklus in Pennsylvania but I heard he passed. I'll check around.

If TIG'ed and filed to shape, the trigger guard will undoubtedly need to be polished, maybe need to have some engraving picked-up, and re colored (blue or black). The success of this restoration is totally dependent on craftsmanship.

Whether to restock or repair and let good enough alone depends on your sense of aesthetics and your use of the gun. You can have the stock repaired and shoot for awhile before deciding about a restock.

Handling. Have you worked out your prefered stock dimensions and handling numbers (weight, balance, and swing efforts). If not, you might want to go on hold until you can confirm that this gun is a candidate for stock fit and handling that will suit you. The influence of the 26" bbls on handling can be compensated for to some extent. Post back if you care to discuss this further.

DDA

Well gentlemen I had my gunsmith remove the band on the stock (turns out it was silver) and the bits and pieces of wood spilled out. Even if they could be put back together, and that is what we are trying, they are so oil saturated is makes no sense except as a pattern. So at the very least the gun must be restocked. Dimensions of a new stock must be a bit different as I could not get fully down on this stock, the heel sits too high. I was looking at Wenig's catalogue just this morning. I will have to give them a call this week.

I shoot 26" barrels regularly on a BSS and a Citori. They are much heavier guns and balance differently. At this time I realize the balance may change but I have no way of knowing at this time. The barrels at 26" are quite heavy and I think at the original 26" or 30" the gun would have been forward heavy. Adding chokes may also help by an ounce or two to bring the balance back.

Someone earlier mentioned Precision Arms in Canada and I talked to the owner. He can do the welding on the trigger guard and depending on the outcome it may have to be case coloured to hide the welds. That would mean the screw heads and top leaver as well to get everything matching. Might look odd against an action that is silvered.

Precision also mentioned taking the monoblock and rebuilding from there. A better result than re-barreling. However the barrels are damascus and that is one of my soft spots. I will look more in the direction of permanent chokes.

Fortunately my gunsmith here in Calgary has inletted two side plated actions in the past. While no expert I have faith in him and he realizes just how much it takes. Also he quoted me his work would be under a $1000. That is one benefit in Canada of finding a craftman that is retired and almost forgotten. He enjoys the work for what it is and his prices are more than reasonable. He charges me a ridiculously low amount to repair, recut the checkering and refinish a stock and I have had him do many for me.

And so I am slowly building a plan and I would still appreciate more comments.

Tamid;
Just my personal opinion of course, but if those bbls are sound I would in no way consider destroying them to sleeve. I know its a matter of terminology, but you do I suppose realize that cutting off the forward portion of the bbls does not make their stubs into a "Monoblock". In order to be a monoblock the breech section has to be originally machined from a single piece of steel, thus "Mono" meaning 1.
Your intended use would of course determine the chokes needed. Unless you plan a lot of "Long Range" use for it a Cyl/Mod combination can be an extremely useful gun & would require only adding choke to one bbl.

Another option on the choking is to hone a little jug choking in if there's good wall thickness.
You will be quite surprised at the patterns 4 or 5 thousandths of jug will deliver, especially for upland game. And very little material is removed from the barrel walls.

I contacted Wenig this morning. They do not have a Hoenig just regular type duplicators. They did indicate they can fit the locks to whatever degree I would like. Semi-fancy wood with fitted locks and the rest unfinished is around $1500 and that would include the forend. They said they do lots of Smiths, Ithacas and other side lock guns. Has any member here had any extensive experience with Wenig and how was the end result?

If the barrels are sound you have a good start. 26" barrels are a little out of fashion these days but aren't doubles as well. If your stock can be repaired to a good pattern for duplication I would give Weinig a shot. I had several semi inletted stocks done by them before I bought my own duplicator. They did good work and deliver times were fairly fast.

You need to come up with what over all level of restoration you are after. One extreme would be a factory fresh level of metal and wood restoration. The other extreme could be only repairs made to make the gun safe to shoot. I suggest some where in the middle. New stock with decent color but not exibition burl, metal work repaired but not re-case colored, barrels rebrowned with soldered choke tubes installed to give useful chokes or leave as is for clay targets. You never need to feel guilty for crippling a clay target because you chokes are to loose for a clean kill.

Above all have fun with the project as time and money can get too important sometimes. Take pictures so you can look back on where you started and how and where you end up with a project. And understand almost every project takes a few turns along the way. Enjoy the ride.