doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Proof House in USA??

Roundabouts are pretty well self regulating and tend to keep traffic flowing better that traffic lights. Milton Keynes has some to spare so maybe we can start exporting some.

Larry, I thought we left rather than be kicked out. Anyway we did come back in 1812 and won round two! Then left again as we couldn't make headway due to the contra flow with the traffic. :-) Lagopus.....

What does any of this prattle have to do with guns or the original subject..Whats next? Recipes?

Speaking of recipes my wife found a new one for quail. Had me filtet the meat off of the breast bone and then she dipped them in egg batter with baking powder and some cayenne pepper and fried them. Then the usual cream gravy, mashed potatoes, and glazed carrots. Oh my it was fine. Night before last.

They were last seasons birds.

They were taken with double guns, mostly 16 gauge Lefevers, Ithacas, Parkers and Birmy boxlocks. The Birmy had nitro proofs, 2-1/2". The unproofed American guns seemed to work as well as the proofed Birmy.

Best,

Mike

Sounds good, Betty (Crocker) Love the way you got this mess back on topic. (Mexican Grenades)..Did I ever tell you about the 54 Hudson Hornet that I had adouble gun in once?

No maker's proofmarks on any of those guns, Mike? That'd be unusual, in my experience. An article in "Army Ordnance" from 1934, by LTC Calvin Goddard, reports the proof standards then used by Hunter Arms, Parker, and Ithaca. Can't say that I've looked for proofmarks on all the American guns I've handled, but I can say that I've seen proofmarks on guns from all 3 of those companies. Also Winchester and Fox. Further information on proof and proofmarks on American doubles can be found in Walt Snyder's Ithaca book, pp 78-79. An example of the Fox proofmark can be seen in McIntosh's book, p. 219. (I seem to recall other reference to proof in that book, but it has a particularly poor index.) For Hunter Arms proofmarks, see pp 189-190 of LTC Brophy's book on L.C. Smiths.

Jeez Larry, lighten up...

The point never was, LD, that American guns aren't proofed by the manufacturer. But we've already been around that mulberry bush at least a couple of times. However, it's grossly misleading to refer to "unproofed American guns".

Doesn't the title sum it up. I thought America does not meet some other standard of firearms proof.

Nit-picking but I don't believe the Winchester 21s were proofed by anybody. I think the barrels were regulated and chokes modified after shooting standard loads in them but I don't believe the 21s as part of the process had proof loads fired in them.


From Schwing's book - I posted the same paragraph on the thread about Winchester chopper lump barrels.

Each Winchester barrel forging had a large long surfaced integral lug. While the idea for interlocking barrels was not new it was an idea that was not employed at that time among other American double gun makers. In addition to this interlocking system, Winchester used soft solder, a mixture of 50 percent lead and 50 percent tin, to join the barrels togeth. Becasue of the strength and reliability of these barrels Winchester was proud to place th Winchester Proof Mark on them. As Edwin Pugsley so aptly put it, "the mark 'Winchester Proof' simply guarantees that it is a heat treated alloy steel of special analysis which is the best that we know at the presnt time for the particular purpose for which it is used."

The footnote to the Pugsley quote says it was in correspondence from Pugsley to Colonel W. F. Sigmund on March 10, 1932.

Mike. I used to own a 16 b Win 21 with VP stamped on it for Violent Proof load. I think they randomly proofed some of their guns but like you, certainly NOT every single gun.