doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Early Davis Hammergun

I've never seen one of these.

I can barely see that one

N.R. Davis of Assonet, Mass., started in the 1850's manufacturing muzzleloaders and one of America's earliest breech-loading doubles, a sliding breech pin-fire.

There is an article by Cdr Gunther on N.R. Davis in the April 1990 issue of The Gun Report, Volume 35, Number 11. There is a little article by Charles E. Carder on the N.R. Davis sliding breech pin-fire in The Double Gun Journal, Volume Three, Issue 2, page 88.

N.R. Davis, one of the first U.S. manufacturers of breech loading double barrel shotguns, was taken over by Warner Arms Corp around WW-I. Warner moved the assets from the original factory in Assonet, Mass. to their plant in Norwich, Conn. in 1919, and became Davis-Warner Arms Corp. They continued to manufacture Davis doubles until about 1926 when they closed the plant and tried their hand at importing guns from Belgium. In early 1930 Davis-Warner was purchased by J. Stevens Arms Company (owned and operated by Savage Arms Corp.). A Stevens memo dated May 23, 1930, announced the acquisition and the intent to resume manufacture of the Davis doubles. Another Stevens memo dated December 15, 1930 announced the purchase from H&D Folsom Arms Company of the assets of Crescent Fire Arms Company of Norwich, Connecticut. The memo went on to say that the assets of Crescent would be merged with those of Davis-Warner Arms Corporation and that the newly formed firm would be known as The Crescent-Davis Arms Corporation, Norwich, Conn. Crescent-Davis would be operated as a competitor of J. Stevens. The new firm was no more successful then its predecessors. On November 4, 1935, an order of dissolution was filed with the New York Secretary of State. So, after that the remains must have been moved to Chicopee Falls and assembled and sold off under various names, and that would be whence your gun came. I'd guess in the 1936 or 37 time frame, because the Crescent-Davis and Springfield guns shown in the 1938 to 1941 Stevens paper I have all appear to be variations on the 311. The Springfield 311 had a casehardened receiver while the Crescent-Davis 600 and 900 had blued receivers.

N.R. Davis "As Good As It Gets"



http://www.picturetrail.com/sfx/album/view/23181554

I've seen one or two, but I can't see yours.

They are kind of cool guns, in an odd sort of way. They come with either Twist or Damascus marked on the left side, that later a bit more expensive. I have shot the Twist one I have and it's sort of loose, but fun.

I worked on one once. It was a top lever hammer gun with a two piece receiver. The left firing pin had been lost, and I was asked to make a new one. I took the right firing pin out to use as a pattern, and found that it had a double bend in it, so assumed that I would need to make two new pins. After turning the new one on the lathe,, I tried it in the gun, and it wouldn't fit. It turned out that it had to have the double bend to work, probably because of the two piece receiver. Other than the odd firing pins, it seemed to be a well made gun.