doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Iver Johnson - sources of info...

Dear colleagues, perhaps there are Iver Johnson collectors/experts in here, or someone who can point me to the sources of info about this firm.

Iver Johnson single shot, under the name of Izh-5, was one of the most popular shotgun designs in Russia/USSR until late 1940s. It was first introduced into Russian market by Petrov's Manufacture some time before 1900, as this fragment of a barrel testifies:



The company's archives were destroyed during the Civil War (1917-1921) and so it is difficult to tell whether they retailed or made Iver Johnsons or both, and from what year. I hope that some documents of Iver Johnson survive which can help throw light on this question.

P. S. Apparently, Petrov's Manufacture had strong ties with American gunmakers. They also used to make single shots on Remington Falling Block actions, both rifled and shotgun, first by converting redindant military rifles, and then on actions obtained from Remington, as the design proved popular.

Perhaps a long shot but search out Bill/William Goforth's book. He was THE expert in I-J pistols and did have some info about their rifles. Can't say about shotguns. He is deceased unfortunately but I got the impression his daughter took up after him.

I have a few Iver Johnson catalogs. If you have a specific question, maybe I can help. I don't think I have any as old as 1900. My email is in my profile.

HD, do you mean Remington "rolling block" rifles? Remington did make falling block rifles, but as far as I know they were only for sporting purposes and are MUCH less common (and much pricier!) than the common rolling blocks. Remington also made rolling block shotguns very similar to the military rifles, although they aren't very common here either.

Copies of Remington rolling block shotguns, and perhaps conversions of rifles to shotguns, were commonly made in
Belgium, too.

I have a Remington Rolling block that is a 20 gauge. I wrote to the Remington forum years ago and Charles Semmer (didn't know who he was then) answered and asked for more info. I sent him everything written on the gun and he came back and said it was a 20 gauge and that the Army had so many left over that they converted many to shotguns.

Thank you very much!

Hoot4570 - thanks a lot. Won't be easy for me to obtain a copy of William Goforth's book, but I'll try to get in touch with his daughter.

Daryl, thank you for your kind offer. I might write to you about it some day, when/if I start to dig into the issue of the design differences between IJ and Russian-made guns of this design. Apparently, there were some.

Mike A. - yes, sorry, I meant rolling block. Thanks for the info that copies were made in Belgium; Petrov's and his rival Evdokimov's had a lot of their guns made in Belgium, and might've easily sourced their Remington actions from there as well. Before Trans-Siberian Railroad, it would've made much more sense logistically.

JDW - the Russian Army bought numerous breechloading designs before they finally settled on Berdan #2, and the conversion of those into shotguns was a sort of a national industry. It continued when the Berdan was replaced by Mosin, and then with redundant rifles from both World Wars - in fact, the last converted shotguns were made in early 1950s.

And now a few pictures

HD, is it a matter of not finding one or more a matter of getting it to Russia? If I can be of assistance getting you a copy, I would be glad to help...not that I know a thing about getting something to Russia but I can learn!

Feel free to take me up on it.

All the best.

Thanks, Hoot, I'll think about it