doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Cabelas mystery gun

Hi all, longtime lurker, infrequent poster. Had a question for the group...

I was looking for a relatively inexpensive 20ga English boxlock for bird hunting, and I found this fairly plain 20ga on the Cabela's website.I went ahead and had it sent it my local store to take a closer look at it, and if I like it I'll probably go ahead and keep it since it's not much more expensive than a plain AyA or Uggie these days, and it's got nice wood, which I'm a sucker for. But I can find almost nothing on a J. Hobson online, nor can I find anything in the archives here, so I thought I'd ask if anyone might be familiar with this maker? Any info would be greatly appreciated. All I could manage to dig up was that he was also a cutler, and died in 1945. Found pics of two other shotguns online, both 12s and both a little nicer, finish-wise, than this one.

J. Hobson

weight is listed as 4 pounds ??!! that is hard to believe.

nice looking gun

Yeah, I have learned to pay very little attention to the listed weights, measurements, etc. on the Cabela's website. They're almost always wrong, sometimes wildly so.

Looks GREAT ! Nice find. Never have seen cabelas guys get a weight correct so don’t worry about the 4lbs thing.

I would probably take a chance on that gun. However, I don't think Bass Pro can measure bores or chambers or send pictures of barrel flats for proof marks.

Yeah, I'm just assuming it's a 2.5-inch chamber, and hoping I can maybe sorta translate or semi-understand a little of the proof marks once I inspect it. I'm no gunsmith, by any stretch, but I've learned through an expensive early lessons to always spend a lot of time looking guns over in the store when I go in to pick them up. Still rolling the dice, of course. But that's also kind of the fun. Until it isn't...

I recently asked Cabelas/Bass to snap of a photo of the barrel flats of a Lang hammer gun they had for sale. Took some doing but they posted the photo and few others I asked for a couple of three days later. None were to clear but legible. The person I spoke with did not grasp the difference between NP and BP proof marks nor the meaning of 13/1 or 14/1 and 18.9 and 18.5 as stamped on the barrel flats. I passed on the gun.

Have you considered what you will do about a repair on such a gun, should one be needed? There will be zero chance of finding a replacement part. It will have to be made by a very talented 'smith, and it will be very expensive.

Not trying to dissuade you from the purchase, just mentioning possible future events. I'm an optimist, so I'd probably buy it too if I wanted it. But, reality should not be denied.

I recently had a friend purchase a really nice Miroku 20 ga. sxs from them. Upon inspecting the gun at the store, was told that he couldn't try the triggers because they would not allow the trigger lock to be removed. Although they reassured him it was working properly, he discovered that the safety would not work on the front trigger! He returned it for a repair and is still waiting.
Their "safety" policies are very restrictive! Be cautious!
Karl

Nice looking gun. I would take a chance on one like that too.