doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com It followed me home...from the web. What is it??

I saw one one of those Japanese "lookalike" guns a couple of years ago. It was a dead ringer from the outside, at least, to a Greener with side safety and all. I was shooting clays with another member of this Board who posts as 'Bunker', and he, or maybe one of his friends, had brought it back from an Air Force assignment in Japan along with a number of other Japanese guns he had accumulated over there. I think he was finding them at what seemed like really good prices, considering the apparent quality of the guns. Like John Mann said, the metal work and wood fit was great, but the wood itself was really plain...Geo

"Dressing it up in different ways, we call those best guns."
Well, I might get a little cheeky with that!
There are more to best made guns - alot more.
This term is tossed about, and rolls off the tongue with ease - lets not be so cavalier with it!
So few deserve the title - we need to protect it.

This is really interesting.

Were these Japanes shotguns made for export, or for local demand?

Did the Japanese hunt? Was there a market there for the guns?

I've seen a few Japanes SxSs that looked like Webley & Scott 700s. I thought they were made post-WW2 for the US market.

OWD

I really intended that comment more on our perceptions of what is quality based on a name, rather than actually looking at the quality of work.

I agree that a best gun should be one that you can rely on the quality of manufacture without having to actually look at the gun. And very few companies held this quality of manufacture throughout there entire line of guns. Even among those companies with sterling reputations, it is necessary to look at the particular gun to acertain what level they were working to.

It does seem that many of the english guns were built on the same basic reciever. I assume that most companies bought a rough reciever and finished it rather than actually forging their own actions. Some companies engraved less or didn't use third bite fasteners, probably to build to a price point. And very few of the companies spent time jeweling or gold plating the internal parts that would never be seen by anyone except a gun smith.

One has to pause and define the meaning of export production.
As a general rule, the makers were small and produced for the Japanese sportsman. Of course, as they were mostly bespoke guns, they could have been built for foreign business men, diplomats or visitors. Then they would have been taken out of country.
It is my understanding that they were not mass produced for export from Japan.
There was and still some wonderful hunting in Japan. Much restricted now though.
I don't wish to leave an impression that millions were built. Certainly many thousands were, but many were destroyed during the war. Enough remained to cause problems for a new pacifist Gov't in dealing with a newly almost disarmed population.
Perhaps, with study and luck, we should know the answers to questions ie these guns. It does not seem possible that the forgings for actions came from England as no records have thus far indicate such.
There is one interesting detail about my Westley appearing gun. The receiver seems resistant to rust and it is not case colored. Perhaps the steel has more chrome in it than most.
This is interesting.
Best,
John

John,
I truly appreciate all of the help on the probable history of this gun. Sometimes it seems like I buy these things, so I can have a reason to learn the history. I guess I love the "mystery novel" aspect as much as the shooting.

Thanks,
Todd

The London sidelock ejector gamegun, was both machine and art.
...but more than that, today's marketplace has decided that there were to be many-many-many thousands of dollars difference in the best gun, and the rough shooter.