doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com T Wild Boxlock 20ga opinions

The checkering looks re-cut..not necessarily a bad thing. Just something to note.
I'd guess from the pics that the bbls are re-blued. They look really great, maybe too good for the rest of the gun. The normally polished up breech end & lug
a bit too bright and new polish looking.
Again, just an observation.

The proof info from the bbl flats would be a must to determine if the 2 3/4" chambers are original.
'In Proof' seems to be so important on Brit guns.
You can do most anything to anyone elses guns and as long as it's done safely, there isn't much said.

Cyl/Cyl chokes certainly possible as orig.
But is that something you would necessarily like to have.

Here's a 12ga Thomas Wild on Hollowell's site. It's redone and a PW grip stock.
The excellent pics show the crossbolt on the left side of the breech and how they hid the round bolt in the engraving scroll work which is much the same as on
this 20ga,
http://www.hallowellco.com/thomas_wild%2012ga.html

Well you guys are a bunch of enablers. Ha ha just kidding, I can blame that on my wife. I went ahead and ordered it, with the 30 day guarantee and with how remote I am, its really my best bet to handle it and see how it fits and feels, and hopefully get it on a good gunsmiths bench for a confirmation and a tuneup (Thanks Canvasback, I owe you a beer).

I'll post more photos once its here! Thanks for the help everyone.

Patrick

If the barrels check out you will have a nice gun to enjoy. Good luck. I have seen several similar 20 bore doubles on Holts auctions that seem to bring less than a thousand pounds. If this one does not work out for some reason I would watch for a nice looking example in one of the upcoming auctions. You only live once and not for long enough to pass up too many nice guns.

Pat,

C'back's tip is spot on. Looks like a great double with very good chokes for grouse and woodcock hunting. I would note that as a practical matter, your BSS is a single trigger. You have been shooting that for a while. This one has double triggers. Back in the day when I had double trigger and single trigger doubles, I always messed up my second shot.

Wild records are still intact for research. Nigel Brown's book lists that they are with Barry King in Birmingham; I don't know if that still is the case. He was last listed at Unit FF1, 63, Price Street, Birmingham. B4 6JZ. Lagopus.....

nca225, I'm braced for that embarrassment - I had a CZ Bobwhite for a little while, and it took a bit of deliberate practice to get used to the DT. Hopefully my brain is still pliable enough in late 30s to manage, but the BSS has been my go-to grouse and woodcock gun for about 12 years, and we hunt a few times a week throughout the season, so there is a lot of muscle memory at play.

I'm hoping that the Cyl chokes actually have a slight constriction, I'm not sure if the listing is going by markings on the gun or actual measurements of the bore. Regardless, there is a bit of adjustment that can be made through shot and wad selection if I get picky. It would be nice if I can make use of this gun for our occasional quail hunting trips to the Southwest. I was using my Auto-5 sweet sixteen with a factory mod choke this year, and while its nice to have that third shot for cripples, a load of 7.5s at mod seemed like overkill for those little birds.

Lagopus, once I have it here in hand I'm hoping to get some more info. Is the Internet Gun Club still a good source of info for records? I found some older posts on there that seem to imply a member had access to the records, perhaps it was Barry King himself. My guess from the serial number and the proximity/similarity to the Hallowell 12 bore is that this is a mid to late 1930s gun. But we shall see.

In my experience, I've found that Cylinder chokes are deadly up to 20-25 yards, when point shooting for grouse and woodcock. Not so useful if they are skittish and are going up at a distance though.

FWIW, my consistency in screwing up the second shot, prompted me to let go of my single trigger doubles, one of which was the BSS. I was fond of that gun though. My compromise on it was to get ahold of a Miroku (Daly) model 500.