doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Skimmin & Wood Two Incher

This gun has been lying in storage for the last 22 years with my gunsmith largely because I had no ammo for it (I live in a forgotten part of Asia). It was given to me by my eldest uncle and came with a story attached which I will tell if anyone is interested although I cannot vouch for its veracity.

I finally got hold of some ammo and have got it out for use.

It is one plain gun which has been re-blued in the past. It locks up tight and has mirror bores.The barrels are 26" long and have a raised Churchill rib. It weighs just 5lbs 4.32oz. and is very well balanced.

The chamber walls are considerably thinner than those of a normal 2 1/2" 12ga.. Obviously most guns have a lot of safety built into them given that this and the 2 1/2" have the same proof pressures.

The one cormorant I shot, as it tried to leg it after marauding my catfish ponds, at some 35 yards, did not complain about its efficacy.

I really would like to know when it was built and any other info about it. Thanks in advance.

All the best

Skeeterbd.




The Two Incher with a normal 30" barreled 12 gauge English boxlock.

Skimin and Wood established in 1920 .The name is now owned by FJ Wiseman . The proof date looks like a letter S so that would be 1937/1938 which would be about right as 2" guns period was mainly the mid 30's . From past conversations with Wiseman's I don't think there are any records ,but I will be speaking to them next week so I will ask for you . As the gun is stamped " Made in England " it is fair to assume that it was made for export . They were trade makers but made a lot of pigeon guns and exported to Australia and New Zealand .

They were advertised in the USA sporting and gun press during the prewar period, but it is assumed that very few were sold. Remington made 2" shells that still are found on the collector market.

Eley and Lyalvale Express in England still make ammo for 2" chamber guns. Anyone with simple loading gear and a roll turnover tool can make cartridges. I use Vectan AS powder but Red Dot and Vhitavouri N310 are also suitable. Card and felt wads and 7/8th. ounce of lead shot. I tend to make my own as it is just as easy and works out cheaper for this cartridge.

Skimmin & Wood made most of the 2" chambered boxlocks for the trade and can be seen with many different 'Makers' names on them. Mine is named J.W.Tolley which was an old firm owned for a while by Skimmin & Wood. Lagopus.....

I have a Hellis 2" 12ga, great for carrying through the grouse woods. RST makes shells, they are not a problem to get here in the US.

Please PM me the story behind it, love to hear it.

thanks, Rob

Heck, post the story here; a lot of us would like to hear it...

Phil

Yes, I Totally Agree with Phil.

Thanks to all for your kind replies.

Gunman:
1937-38 is spot on because the date I have for the original owner of the gun purchasing this gun is 1940. It was certainly "made for export" as it was bought in Manton's shop in Calcutta to the best of my knowledge.

Lagopus:

I thought that Tolley's were more into wildfowling pieces but they obviously made guns for everything or as asked for. Mine is, as Gunman says, a "for the empire" version. It's the Eley's that I have now and hope to get more of soon.

Recoil Rob:

It certainly is light, yet handles with a balance that usually comes with a little more weight. My gun is painfully plain but has the lines. I intend to pit it against snipe and doves.Look to your PMs.

Eightbore:

Here's a cartridge for you.It came with the gun (although I am sure not collectible like the Remingtons). Made in Belgium by FN it has what I think is an aluminium case. Have a look below:








The Belgian with a modern Eley Two Inch.

All the best

Skeeterbd

Well here it is for what its worth. It has no racy B-movie starlets in it though.

The original owner of the gun, my uncle's father-in-law, was a judge in the Calcutta High Court when WWII began. He was apparently extremely fond of hunting in all its forms including pigsticking). Anyway, in the dry season of 1940 when the court was on its many long vacations he headed off to a well known forest (which now no longer exists except for some pathetic remnants)in northern Bengal for some tiger beating. He was accompanied in his endeavour by the Clerk of his Court, the Sherestedar, as they are still called. The Clerk was a man of fine family as such usually were as these jobs were kept by the all knowing Brits for what they called "unworthy sons of worthy families". He too was much experienced in tiger hunting.

To cut to the bone: Two tigers appeared in a beat in front of M'Lud, who promplty let off the two barrels of his double rifle (A Cogswell and Harrison in .375 H&H, I believe) dropping one dead and sending the other wounded back through the beaters.

Men off the Calcutta High Court were expected to be of the upstanding sort with a little backbone. So they got the beaters to safety and M'Lud went after Mrs. Tiger for apparently that is what she was.

M'Lud opined that the aggrieved Lady was likely to become violent at close quarters so preferred to arm himself with a twelve bore shotgun (a very ordinary E-17 model Greener with 3" chambers and 32 inch barrels which also came down to my uncle and still exists)loaded with LGs (Brit buckshot = 000 buck). The Sherestedar was ordered to hang on to the double rifle and stay and guard the beaters.

M'Lud slippped into the forest heading for a the only patch of thick ground cover nearby (Sal forests - Shorea Robusta _ has little undergrowth except where trees have fallen and opened the canopy to allow light onto the forest floor).

Sherestedars of good family do not allow their Lordships of the High Court to disappear into forests where the aggrieved and/or offenders unknown may reside. He followed M'Lud at a discreet distance keeping to the left rear.

I know not much of such, but I believe in those days nitro-expresses were loaded with a bullet called a "split" for thin skinned game. The Sherestedar loaded the rifle accordingly.

The tigress was duly met with coming towards him and fired upon by the judge and killed. But the Sherestedar, on seeing that the judge was letting the tigress to get perilously close to himself, also chose to fire at the same time. Maybe the tigress had fallen by the time he fired; at any event, he missed. The bullet hit a tree and did what it was designed to do. It "split".
The split returned and passed through the lower part of the left bicep of the judge and lodged just below the heart (My uncle insisted it bounced of that much ossified organ!).

He was rushed to the nearest town which had a railway junction and small hospital. Trains were commandeered in the name of the Court and he was ruched to Calcutta in a hospital carriage with doctors attending.

The old codger lived with the bullet lodged in him for many years as they had not devised ways of by passing hearts then (although I suspect it cant have been that bad, given that he lived). However his bicep injury made it difficult to wield his weighty Greener any more. So he bought this little gun to shoot teal and snipe through the twilight of his years.

How is that for a long-winded excuse for buying a gun!

All the best

Skeeterbd.

Bravo! Good story of a world that is hard to imagine now.