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

Guess you should have learned from the Photobucket deal and saved them somewhere, Gene.

W.W.Greener from about 1870. Non rebounding and Jones under lever. Absolutely untouched original. From half cock it is extremely quick to sweep both hammers to full with my thumb. Notice the hammers at full cock are below the barrels, out of sight. IMO the 1870’s were the peak of English gunmaking. Everything was hand made, very little machinery.

My favorite upland hammer gun is a very early (possibly the first) Charles Daly finished in Germany from Scott parts in the 1870’s. About 6 1/2 pounds with original 28” barrels. High rebounding hammers close enough to sweep back together with one hand. Fast!

Here is the Daly doing what it does best:

That is a beautiful shotgun. Good enough reason to carry it afield.

One of the guns that got me going on this little adventure. Joe's guns are lovely. The hammers on that Greener are unlike any I've ever seen before.

It's not hard to figure out Mr. Wood's raison d'etre for that Scott-sourced Charles Dailey, eh? Very cool. That confirms for me that there are huntable hammer guns out there. The key is finding the right one.

https://imgur.com/a/nXJ9XTS

Trying to figure out IMgur. I should have bid on this gun 2 years ago.

Argo, what is it?

Lloyd, IMO there are very few hammer guns available that are suitable for my type of upland shooting. I must have a super quick gun for when a covey of quail explodes right under my feet. The Daly fits it perfectly. But I must say when I walk into a wild covey that the dogs have locked down on both hammers are already cocked.

BrentD: Nice William Evans 16 BTW.

Also, and more to your point, many (if not most) hammer guns have learning curves (and some can be fairly steep). Hunting with one presents challenges that have been unheard-of for, what... the last 2 or 3 generations of hunters? The world has moved-on (in so-many ways) and seeing one afield is very rare now. Other than using one myself (a few years ago now), I've never encountered another in the field (sadly, I suspect that's probably more of a comment on where and when I actually do go afield).

With the passage of time, good or even "great" useable examples are now becoming fairly uncommon. For the much earlier and perhaps more-refined versions, because of their mostly-now very advanced age and the technologies employed in their making (almost exclusively by hand & with long-obsolete [i.e., "primitive"] steels), they have care & feeding components well beyond what your average shotgunner is willing to tolerate or even bother to understand, at least...in order to use them properly and safely. They have become so-much more art than utility, when you consider the many inherent "disadvantages" some of them now possess. I recently heard the term "boutique" being used to describe a very early example, and it's an apt description. Ignorance here is not only expensive, it can be maiming (and even lethal). Not using ammunition with the proper levels of pressure (or even the correct dimensions) and/or not utilizing rigorous and then timely cleaning techniques will inevitably lead to a disaster (in one form or another). And yet....for me at least, they represent some of the greatest examples of a gunmaker's artistic expression that I've ever seen or held. Seeing several exceptional examples again recently (down at Whittington) has really brought that back to me.

Joe,
If that Greener ever needs a new home, please keep me in mind.

King George V stuck with hammer guns all his life.

But I take it that his loader handed them to him already cocked.

I bought lot 222, a J. Burrows hammered shotgun almost 6 years ago. The gun had been re-stocked and probably in 2000 the chambers were lengthened to 2 3/4" and re-proofed for nitro at the Birmingham Proof House. Other then replacing the 2 screws that hold the hammers on, I haven;t had to do anything else. So if you are patient and willing to accept some compromises (re-stocked and a Jones under lever) one can still find a hammer gun at a reasonable price that is shoot-able with modern ammo.



Link: https://poulinantiques.hibid.com/catalog/78419/summer-firearms-auction-june-18--2016/?cpage=5