doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com A Tobin forend attached by screw?

Not long ago I passed on a Tobin 16 ga. as I was not able to remove the forend to complete my inspection. Every Tobin I've ever seen had a Hackett-type spring loaded forend.

The seller has now contacted me to advise that the forend was in fact attached by a screw.

Could this be so? Perhaps something that Crandall cobbled together? Or maybe a "fix" done by someone else?

I had a friend who would look at a low-buck repair to something and declare "What the farmer would do".

I've seen a lot of cobbled guns over the years. And, cars, tractors, trailers, well pumps, etc.

Best,
Ted

No screw in either of my 2 Tobins.

that's one way to try to hold a tobin together during recoil??....

A little clarification. A Tobin doesn't need to be "held together" during recoil when it is used with low pressure ammunition. I expect they would be just fine, for long use, if loaded that way. Further, a Tobin is far from the only older design that it is common today to consider the use of lower pressure ammunition in, in order to keep it healthy, for a longer period of time.

I have seen a lot of old doubles, Tobin, and otherwise, that had simply been brutalized in use. Not always a testament to the shortcomings of the owner, or the gun, either. And unspeakable repairs applied to said guns. If you lived, for example, in the Klondike, 80 years ago, and needed your gun to work a few more times, that may have been your only option, besides going without the gun.

Something like that is my guess, here. Just a quick repair to get a tool working again.


Best,
Ted

To add to what Ted said, people don't seem to realize what the value of old guns was in past years and hard times. A Tobin in the 1930's wasn't a collector item, but just another old gun, possibly worth a couple of bucks, and no parts available. A 50 cent blacksmith repair was a reasonable fix.

I agree with what Ted & Tom have said. To me personally old guns such as this have character. While i would not condone doing such as this to one today, as stated folks needed them to work back when this was done. It very likely was the only gun they owned & they probably didn't have the funds for a "Proper" fix.
Pass on them all if you like. A mint, unfired, gun is a valuable collector's item but gun such as this can be enjoyed without the worry of putting a itty bitty scratch on it & vastly reducing its value. The majority of my guns are a good ways from mint but I enjoy them thoroughly. Also I much prefer to see a field grade gun, "KEPT" as a field grade rather than guzzied up into a "Graded" model.