I love these old push forwards, under lever, Langs, with their safety that toggles. I just received this one from a Holts sale from last year thanks to SKB. I thought the stock had been replaced with a central vision stock and expected the tang to have been bent. Not the case. The tang is not altered like it would be on a crossover stock. It comes up nicely and I intend to shoot it as it is for now. The wood looks a bit newer in hand, but could have been original. For-ends seem to almost always end up darker over time. Eight pounds, two ounces and balance at the hinge pin exactly. Even for a central vision it comes up very nicely with my eyes looking almost down the center of the rib. Think of this as a gun with a bit of extreme cast off. Maybe my face is fatter than the original fellow. If he had a hatchet face, it might have been a true central vision setup for him. For me, it has about 3/8" too much cast off. I can work with that.

The only down side on this gun, to me, is the removal of the chokes. I would have loved it with .040 or so chokes. Described as true cylinder it has about .010 coke as the bore is slightly over bored for almost four inches until the last one inch, which is about .010 tighter. So the end choke area is about the same as the general bore diameter, with a almost four inch long .010 overbored section. I have seen this done before, and in that gun a gun with .012 overbore, it patterned like a true modified or slightly tighter choked gun at 40 yards. Do not know how it worked, but some of my trap shooting brothers get very interesting performance out of different choke profiles. But first to the pattern plate to check POI and see what patterns I have. Then a trip to the Sporting Clays range or a couple rounds of 16 yard trap. Seriously thinking about seeing if I can get chokes added back into it if it is too open or just try different shot sizes and velocities to find a good performing load. Proofed at 4 tons, 3", 1 1/2 ounce loads it will handle almost anything I would ever put into it. I am ready for shooting weather.

JOSEPH LANG & SONS AN UNUSUAL 12-BORE (3IN.) 1878 PATENT PUSH-FORWARD UNDERLEVER TRIGGERPLATE-ACTION SIDEPLATED NON-EJECTOR PIGEON GUN

Beautiful !!!

Mike

Very nice, Jon. Thanks for sharing.

My, how clean it looks on top, w/o a top opening lever.

A lovely Lang Hammerless trigger plate action gun and nicely engraved. Does it have Damascus barrels that have been blacked over? I have one in 8 bore but with a Nickel plated action and no engraving except the name on the dummy lock plates. Mine also has disc set strikers which must be quite early for this feature. I think it will be great to shoot. Good luck and it will show some of these modern trap shooter what a proper trap gun should look like too. :-) Lagopus.....

That is an incredible gun. I can't imagine how it handles like that but I bet it is interesting and completely different than anything I've shot before.

That is a stroke of good fortune that the tang is not bent. Lucky and good for you.

The action, fences, and engraving are stunning. Congratulations.

Jon,
That gun is breathtaking! I would expect that the clays would simply "break" out of respect! Shoot it in good health.
Karl

Went through the main sale with no bids. I was saving my shekels, for a gun later in the sale, which went for three times high estimate. Was glad to see it come up again but did not want to go too high in price. I’ve never shot a central vision before and already have too many “yeah, but if only” guns and restocking with a altered tang would be a nonstarter.

Bought it for 200pounds under low estimate, at unsold lots. It never did make reserve, on the unsold lots, and I thought I missed buying it as I forgot to bump my bid up again. Got an invoice for it and the rest is history. I loaded a flat of US 7’s, (English 6’s), for a bit of Sporting Clays and then a round of Trap and then Skeet this weekend. By the end I should have a real feel for it. It balances so perfectly between the hands. This was a well thought gun, if only…it still had tight chokes. If they ever made one like this in 20 gauge, with 30” barrels, the money it would bring might shock a person

So are you telling us that SKB Stevie imported this gun too? Holy cow, that would make five guns that have been mentioned here in the last week that were imported as a result of the free advertising he does here.


I believe that you have mentioned several other guns SKB Stevie has imported for you Jon. Since Dave is supposed to get $12.00 for the sale of things that were advertised on his forum, this is really adding up. And that's just the gun's we hear about. I wonder how many others there are???

Yep.
I’ve always liked the clean look of a sidelever Grant as well.

beauty

KyJon, I hope you can shoot that gun, but if you are strongly right eye dominant, I’d say no chance. Please let us know how it goes. If you have close to nasal vision with both the left and right eye and maybe more right, then maybe, otherwise I’d expect a not so good result. Sounds like you got a good enough deal that a re-stock may not be all that painful. Bottom line, a shotgun that doesn’t fit isn’t all that great. Please give us a report after a weekend shooting (hopefully your weather is better than ours here in IN or you may have to wait to try the gun; it’s still practically winter here…rain, rain, rain, wind, wind, wind. Come on Spring! Good luck, Ky Jon.

Gorgeous gun!

It's almost like being a new (proud) father. Call it good fortune, good luck, or in this case most likely good sense. Way to go, man! Gil