doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Mike Orlan --- please respond.

I had Mike Orlen open the chokes on my 64' Superposed. The factory chokes were M/F. The full choke was .048 and the Mod choke was .039. Not exactly useful for any bird hunting that I know of or do. Patterned the gun and as suspected, it was atrocious. I had Mike open the top barrel to .020 and the bottom barrel opened to .005. Guess what suckas.....now its actually "useable" in the field and was responsible for a good number of both pheasants and quail this season. The Superposed was meant to be used, not sit in a safe.
I offered this same superposed up for sale on this board for what I felt was a very reasonable price before I sent it off to Mike to have it "raped". There were no takers then to save my pristine Superposed from its trip to the grim reamer. Oh well. Goes back to the main point...its my gun and I'll do with it what I please.

By the way....Mr. RMC is SPOT ON.

Dustin

Ever find one that fits?

Gunsmiths!

Timing is such a difficult thing to sort out. Sometimes I get a gun back a week after I put it in for rejounting or ejector regulating or new lock pins etc. Other times I wait for months and months and months.

I have had a Reiley hammer gun in the workshop which needs a new horn finial fitted to the forend - for two years! In the interim I have had a pair of Holland & Hollands re-stocked and overhauled, a Purdey sleeved and re-stocked, another H&H re-stocked, numerous re-joints, strips, cleans and re-chequer jobs etc..

I have a Boswell hammer gun that needs a pair of chamber sleeves sunk into it - I have been waiting for over two years!

I had a Lancaster boxlock for re-stocking the forend that I took home after two years of waiting and sold 'as was'.

What is the story?

Well, gunmakers take on whatever work comes in and they have only the one pair of hands. Like the rest of us, some work appals more than other work and it is all too easy to pick up something they like the look of rather than a job they have been avoiding. Also, some jobs may appear more urgent than others.

Unfortunately it just goes with the territory. It is the bane of my life and explaining to a customer that their gun is 90% ready but I am trying hard to get the gunsmith to re-chequer it; the final job, but he keeps not doing it, is always a chore.

Still, this is the way it is. Too few good gunsmiths and too much work for them to do.

Recoil Rob, good question. Yes, I have a bunch that fit, and a few that don't. When I go on a hunt, I pick one that is right for the job, don't ship it off to the gunsmith. For clay targets, I shoot them as they come, because I'm not making my living shooting clay targets. When I shoot for money, I definitely pick one that fits and has chokes that are suitable for the job. Concerning Ken Hurst's great work upgrading field grade guns, I have one in the hopper as we speak. However, the chokes will remain at full and full. It will be my dream Fox pigeon gun when finished. I actually object more to the money that is being wasted by gun owners who can't shoot than I am by the modification of collectors items. Some of my nicest guns were bought cheap because of the modifications made by previous owners. I guess my favorite is my wife's DHE Parker Trap with factory single trigger, straight grip, beavertail, and 26" barrels overbored and rechoked to IC and MOD by a previous owner. Many years ago, a famous Texas dealer (still barely in business) advertised the gun as a factory skeet gun, sold it for the big buck, refused to take it back when the buyer confronted him. I bought it from a subsequent owner for a song. He displayed it at a local gun show with a tag that said "DHE Parker, cut barrels". It is a wonderful gun.

Bill, shooting from a blind, M/F is too tight around here. These old guns produce gobs of shot that pulverize. I've had whistlers shot so badly that my Lab would gag and spit them out on the shore, literally flattened, and wouldn't bring them into the blind. I eat ducks; I like to cook them. Before I die I'll screw up the courage to open one to C/C with the expectation of a grandchild gunner saying one day "This was Grampy's favourite duck gun." Immortality!

My dad had a saying: Get a gun and learn to shoot it. I guess that's what you had to do living during the great depression and WWII, when you were lucky to have a gun or shells at all. So, that's what I've always tried to do - never had a gun fitted, altered, "upgraded", etc. Turning anything into a science always seemed to ruin it for me, plus, from years I spent in the music business, I learned that the best players could take ANY instrument, play the sh!t out of it, and sound great.

I follow several shotgun boards, a couple of fly fishing boards, and a board for guitar players. Each has a wide variety of participants: "Experts", collectors, folks who obsess about the proper combinations of this and that, set up, specs, etc.,and a whole bunch of folks who just hunt, shoot, fish or play, and have fun doing it. I seem to fit best in that category.

I recently got jumped pretty good when I opined that it is silly to pay $100+ for a guitar capo; I still think it is, but I was surprised to find out how many not only think it's NOT silly, but actually think that if you don't own a $100+ guitar capo, you're not playing to the full potential of your instrument.

The only time I've ever used a gunsmith is when something broke, and fortunately that hasn't happened very often. I hope Mr. Ken and Mike work out their differences; from what I've heard and read they both seem like good fellows. Too bad this had to happen.

As for the differences of opinion of altering guns, whatever floats your boat. Like the kids say, It's all good.

Well said, Fin2Feather. My sentiments exactly! As a British gunsmith I know said, "Lord, it's a shotgun--shoot it!"

Eightbore....does it bother you that the chokes in your gun would be useless to me? Just curious what you'd do if one were destined to be your "dream woodcock gun?" or your "dream vintage skeet gun?" How about a 30", 6 lb, Fox 20ga with .032/.034" chokes? Would that be a dream anything?

On topic.... I have 5 Foxes that were raped by Mike Orlen. Each was rechoked to within .001" of my ideal. Not because that tolerance is absolutely necessary, but because he could and would. I wouldn't trust Briley, Inc. to do that on a bet. Each of the 5 is choked perfectly for the task I apply them to, and not one is either Cyl or Full. As far as I know, Burt Becker didn't make grouse guns or target guns, so I've relied on Mike Orlen.

You win, Mike. If I didn't have guns that would do anything I wanted them to do, I would mess with the chokes to make them do what I wanted them to do. So far, I haven't had to do that, but I imagine some day I will have a gun that needs changing. Actually, I was close to opening the chokes on my favorite Smith shooter which has 32" full choke barrels. Just in the nick of time, I located a set of 30" improved cylinder and modified barrels for less money than it would have cost to open the chokes on the long barrels. Lucky me.

Yes, that would be one of my dream dove guns for the desert. My most recent purchase was a Spanish sidelock 20 with 30" barrels, F&F, about 6-1/2 pounds.