doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Extra heavy Damascus Montgomery ward Baker

Critical measurements to follow but I just picked up a lightly engraved Montgomery Ward Baker made gun with massive Damascus barrels, akin to a 12 on a 10 ga barrel. Any thoughts on such a beast? Tubes have approx .130 muzzle wall thickness
Jason

I have two such MW baker guns (Damascus barreled) in what I call waterfowl configuration. Very thick and heavy, tightly choked barrels. I also have one steel barrel version with the same massive over kill barrels.

Have you checked the bores, walls and chokes? Mine are over bored, .055-.060 wall thickness with chokes in the .050 range. Been thinking about making them into heavy waterfowl guns. But all three could use better stocks. The metal may have been extra heavy duty but the wood is just regular Baker wood. One had a cracked wrist and the other two have cracks in them. Heavy loads on old the old wood are not a great combo. Plans are to make on a straight grip, one a pow and one a beaver tail fore end gun with which ever butt stock handles and shoots best for me.

Neat
I enjoy Baker Shotguns
Looking forward to pictures
Mike

I think Baker used a block of serial numbers for the MW guns. My three all fall in a narrow range. The two Damascus are 4384X and 4384X, just three numbers apart and the steel version just a hundred plus also off. Each gun was bought from owners that were many miles apart. I was very happy to find the second gun just 3 numbers apart from the first.

32" barrels that measure .085 and .090 at 9". Min. wall thickness is just over .060. Stout and very heavy guns. Built for heavy loads for sure.

I am sure you would shoot these with non-steel shot?

I shot. Bismuth in one a few years ago. We were pass shooting ducks flying between a refuge and a farm that did not allow any hunting. My farm was right between both and we shot several limits along a hedge row. We even got a bonus goose or two. I love pass shooting ducks and geese when the conditions are right. And a tight choked double, good retriever and clear lines of sight to watch birds work are about as good as it gets for me these days. I would have subbed lead for bismuth but big brother does not allow for accurate historical double use. So Bismuth had to do.

Well much to my shagrin, ( I was pretty sure of this when I bought it) mine only has 30 inch tubes. However they are heavy and very tighty choked. The gun is in the 52k range. As mentioned above, the wood is very very slim in the wrist and, though elegant and dainty, it doesn't match the workhorse barrels.