I’ll admit it, my first hammer gun isn’t very fancy, but it is in fantastic mechanical condition and it appears to have been very lightly used (tight and on face as new and bores bright). My research on this shotgun is from the 1908 Sears, Roebuck Catalogue. This gun, a “Meriden Special”, appears to be identical to the gun listed in the 1908 Catalogue as the “AJ Aubrey.” I suspect mine may be a later vintage by a few years.
Interestingly, the customer had the choice of three different types of steel barrels from lowest to highest cost: “Crystal Gun Barrel Steel,” “Genuine Improved Liege Full Finished Twist Steel,” or “Genuine Improved Liege Double Blade Damascus Steel”. The hammer gun cost only $12.59 (mine I think is the one with the twist barrels and thus, it cost $1 more), when the hammerless side plate gun cost $13.89. To put this into perspective, in that same catalogue, the LC Smith with Armor Steel was $25 (if you wanted Damascus it was $32.90). So this Meriden Firearms Co., made hammer gun represented a significant value to the budget minded. The customer was given a 60 day free trial and the guns carried a twenty year guarantee.
While there were three choices in barrel steel and many choices in grades, there were only two barrel lengths (30” or 32”) and you could get any gauge and choke you wanted so long as it was 12 gauge and F/F! The barrels were described as "choke bored by the Taper system, so bored that the choking will never shoot out, reinforced at the breech, reinforced matted top rib, reinforced bottom rib, double lugs, four bolt construction." In an illustration of the lock up on the barrels (#6), all of this reinforcement was with a view to make the use of "white, smokeless, or other high explosive powders perfectly safe, to give the very minimum of recoil or kick... ."
Other interesting information to the customer:
"Shooting qualities- As before explained, the shooting qualities of these guns are unequaled for long distance killing, long range shooting, for penetration, pattern or target. Both barrels are full choke bore, so firmly constructed that unlike other guns, there is no recoil or kicking. That which in other guns goes into recoil in the A J Aubrey gun goes to give greater force to the shot."
Imagine...no recoil...all that force is directed out the barrels...I wonder why that never caught on?
Tomorrow my Meriden Special and I are going to shoot some trap (Federal 7/8 oz low pressure)...what's a fellow to do with two full chokes in a damascus barreled gun but shoot trap?
