doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com 11 Gauge Scott

Last Fall Argo posted for me pictures of a WC Scott I bought at the time. It’s a great shooter but it’s a bit of an effort. The gun is circa 1874 and has no choke. The locks are rebounding, but with a half cock. An “11” is stamped on the barrel flats. Bores are .768, but an RST round will not go into the chambers. Hand loads I make for my Parker 10 won’t fit either. I cranked the resize collet on my Sizemaster until resized hulls would fit. Happy Day. Would anyone hazard a guess as to why Scott would make a 10 gauge with such tight chambers: a 10 bore with 11 bore chambers? Maybe made for brass hulls? Proofs are black powder.

I had a MacNaughton boxlock, 12 gauge, second gun with steel barrels they had built, that was bored 13 gauge. It was fairly common to bore them tighter, but, I’ve never heard a good reason why it was done. Mine had been to the proof house numerous times and had a carnival of marks on the flats, most of them modern, well, post WWII, anyway.

Best,
Ted

Maybe it was made for brass cased cartridges.

I own one 11 gauge (a percussion double) bearing Birmingham proofs that came into usage in 1868 but I can’t really offer any help as it’s bores measure .750/.751.

There was a fashion for “chamberless” guns, using thin brass cases and a minimal forcing cone at the front of the chamber.

The chamberless Tolley "Altro" was introduced in the 1890s
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For what it's worth, I have a high grade 8 bore Scott single made in 1872. It is truly in mint condition. I found that it's chamber was actually oversize compared to American 8 gauges. I have to normally resize the head on industrial shells to make them work, but the Scott actually works perfectly with the industrial hulls. The bores, conversely, measure to true 8 gauge. I wonder sometimes if chambers may have varied a lot during that period. I have a P. Webley 8 double of the same period and it has a standard chamber.

Bores are different too. Parker used 11 bore barrels on their 12 gauge guns as a normal practice until the end of the century. That situation was confounded by the fact that early on they chambered for both paper and brass shells. None of their guns are marked. Although they made a veritable hand full of documented 11 gauge guns, you see magazine articles and ads constantly that have discovered the latest "lost 11" based on a bore measurement and the fact that a particular cartridge won't chamber or is loose. It was a pretty dynamic period.

I have a Parker top lever hammergun circa 1889 with bores of .752. That’s 11 bore, but it’s definitely a 12 gauge according to the chambers. At least I’ve always shot 12 gauge shells in it.

The Scott has 3” chambers and there is a definite bump when my bore gauge goes from chamber to bore.

That's completely normal for a Parker up to the late part of the century and on demand or to use up stock barrels after that. At that period it should have a normal paper shell chamber. The same was true of the 10 gauge guns which had 9 gauge barrels in the early years and were also available with paper or brass chambers. One Parker I own is a first model 12 gauge with back action locks. It has 11 gauge barrels by measurement and was apparently sent back to the factory just before WWII to have the chambers enlarged to "standard 12 gauge chambers". I found it interesting that the work was the only documented record for the gun. The gun was made in 1869-1872 with a a5xx serial number. It says a lot about the gun that over 40 years after the original purchase, the owner got tired of having to handload obselete undersized brass shells and sent it back to the factory for the $1.50 job of rechambering. He must of really liked the gun.

Hi, I own a W C Scott 12g hammer, with a very low serial number 735. Damascus barrels. And in proof.