doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Best of the Working Man's Doubles

Fox, parker, "working mans guns" maybe one day long ago, but the way they are priced now..no..My brush/bad weather "working mans" gun is a western fields 20ga s/s, and for Lowell, I am far from "uppity"

Parker, Fox, Smith... C'mon, guys, working man's gun is Baikal only! You can shoot, you can use it as hammer or canoe oar, garage door stopper and many more

My old hunting partner for 30 years was a blue-collar working man, a machinist in a strong union shop, a lifelong Socialist. He shot a field grade Winchester 21.

Possibly those Win 21's were union made?

My family were working men for sure, and were partial to Fultons (or ANYTHING sold at Sears); my favorite of the bunch and still my foul weather/nasty cover piece, my 16 ga. Iver Johnson Hercules.

One of my Grandfathers was a dairy farmer and didn't know much about guns. He had a Mossberg bolt action 16 gauge and in the kitchen closet was a cigar box full of shells for it. Some sixes, some fours, some no. 1 buck maybe a few others.
My other Grandfather was a fisherman and hunted game for the larder quite a bit, taking deer, ducks and geese, grouse (shot sitting) and the occasional hare.
He had an old dog-legged single shot 12 that he just loved to death and used for all of his "patridge shootin" He shot deer and waterfowl with an old long barrelled Model 10 Rem pump that was "as long as he was" my Dad always said. He too had a cigar box full of mixed shells that two wars and a depression had taught him to use sparingly. My Dad still has these guns.
He used these same two guns and the same hunting knife, his whole life. I have his knife.
It is a constant reminder of my needless excess :>).

You are all talking about vintage guns, mostly American, which are not exactly inexpensive. A good, clean Sterlingworth or Trojan could be approaching $2,000 and could have issues like short chambers. The working man's gun needs to cost less than those guns and should be new, made with modern materials, 2 3/4 chambers, even choke tubes and probably a single trigger. Sounds like a Huglu. I love my Parkers, Foxes and Elsies, I insist on double triggers and I don't like ejectors or choke tubes but I'm not the working man we are talking about. He needs a Huglu.

Its like the story of the old farmer's wife, her poolboy lover and hubbies' minty Parker VH 28g.
Hard story to believe without the gun being a 12ga.

I just moved to western PA. It is the land of the hardware store gun. LOTS of Crescents with a variety of brand names on them. Also Belgian imports. I have seem many "W. Richards" guns. But it makes perfect sense. In the day these guns were purchased, far from the "big city", the local feed and hardware store was the center for everything including sporting goods. More like survival gear here.
Some were mail ordered, or catalog ordered. Not having a affluent or "showy" type of buyer, the field grade was king here. Most guns here are used to death, or not at all, but not at all is rare. The 12 ga . is a given, We are right on the fringe of Ithaca country, so I see the occasional Ithaca and a few Nitro specials, all field grade of course. Actually this is rifle country with the giant deer we have here.

No, they were not Crescents. Sears set up the factory at Meriden CT, to build these guns & A J Aubrey was the name of the manager. Since this factory was built & operated as a Subsidiary of Sears, are you certain they were ever sold by Wards? I would find this highly unlikely.
Miller