doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com The Finest American Side-by-Side Ever?

I've heard the story about some early Colts shotguns coming from the UK, but I thought they were just hammerguns.

I swear I've seen a few of these, too. I thought Scott made them.

OWD

Several years ago I bought one of those H&R's(I thought the action was Anson&Deely)in a pawn shop. The barrels are Damascus and heavily pitted. I have been afraid to shoot it since it is 10ga and I haven't run across ammo I thought was safe. The buttstock has been replaced with a stock that has as much drop as a Pennsylvania rifle.
I have been told the H&R was the first boxlock sold in the USA.

I've handled several of the 1878 Colt hammer guns that seemed to have very good dynamics. The 1883 boxlocks on the other hand have seemed rather clubby to me. No fine gun dynamics at all.

I'd say it would be how many angles can dance on the head of a pin whether a Remington Special, a Parker Bros. Invincible, a DeLuxe Grade L.C. Smith, or a Thousand Dollar Grade Lefever is the "best." Obviously the buying public of the time favored the DeLuxe Grade L.C. Smith by a wide margin with 30 sold.

Sneider or Clark & Snieder made some damn fine doubles in Baltimore as did McComas. What about Krider in Philadelphia? or Kirkwood?

In reality the best doubles ever made in America are being turned out by Tony G. right now!!!

Sorry to sound like a broken record...but the two premier pieces at the Winchester/Cody museum are not only engraved by "the engraver that all engravers, past and present, and guaged against", Rudolph Kornbrath, they were completely hand made by perhaps the most skilled doublegunsmith this continent has ever produced...Emil Flues...(along with Hepburn, Mason, Whitmore, Tonks, Genez, Lefever, and more)

There's a good reason why James Packard commisioned Emil Flues to make his guns...in fact the most valuable Patek Philippe pocket watch ever produced...double faced...double moon phase...repeater..with astronomical complications...just happened to be commissioned by James Packard as well...

There is good reason why Ras Tafari travelled to America "to seek out this medieval craftsman" to have his golden gun made in the 1920s...when he could have gone directly to England...This gun is probably the most significant firearm in African American history

There's damn good reason that Rudolph Kornbrath chose Flues made guns for his customers, such as Tom Mix

Because Flues was nearly a "one man band" annual production numbers were very low...so Flues is mostly overlooked for his achievments...and known only for his shotgun design that Ithaca Gun flooded the market with, and brought the big makers to their fiscal knees (Parker, Smith, Fox, Remington)...Brown, King, Mason, or Hollenbeck never enjoyed such success with any of their designs...(in terms of production numbers)

In time, as many of the stolen Flues guns surface, the world will come to know the gunsmith Emil Flues, rather than the inventor Emil Flues...

but then there's the dark side...from shortly after the end of the depression 'til 1947, the only way Flues could pay his bills was to continue to do commission work...mostly for members of the Cherry Hill Country Club, which was mostly upgrading Parkers with exact factory engraving patterns...Pachmayr purchased well over 50 of them from Paul Brobiel (Brobiel & Canazzi Yacht Club)in 1962...they were sold to Pachmayr as "fakes" for relitively little...Bet you won't find that in any of your Parker books...

No brainer, an FE and above from New Britain, CT USA.

Jim, thanks for the tip on Colt. I've never seen one, let along handle one. I always thought of them as a sort of wannabe that showed up in old catalogues and disappeared without a following. I don't recall such previous interest and praise here.

Pulling a few rabbits from the hat(on upside down, no doubt), is not a body of work in the gun industry. The industry must feed the masses it's quality guns, and is so judged.

Are you sure? Have you seen appendix A on pps 127-163 in 'The Golden Age of Shotgunning' by Bob Hinman?
Better get a "pichfork" man!

In "Side by Sides of the World for Y2K", the Colt 1883 hammerless boxlock is described as "considered one of the finest American doubles ever built". Assuming that's true, calling it THE "finest" is something different. Surely "one of the finest" would include Parker, Winchester M21, and my favorite for simplicity and sheer genius, the Syracuse Lefever.
Certainly the fame the Colt name has in our history(maybe world history) coupled with the relatively small number of SxS they made, make them desireable collector's items. I had never heard or read the statement that they were THE FINEST ever made, before this thread.

Let's hope folks at the Melbourne Exposition and the Massachusetts Mechanic Association knew what they were examining before they handed out medals and awards of merit.