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Miller,
You probably didn't save the box-here is what it looked like:



When I took this gun out of the box, two years or so ago, it was the first time it had been out of it since it was purchased, the same way you got yours. Former owner seemed to think 1965. He has about 15 years on you, and lived to tell about the Battle off Samaar in WWII, but, his memory is a little fuzzy.
Mailman brought him a box with this gun.



The chokes are noted on the box as being Mod and Full. The marks from the proofhouse in VT tell a different story, however. They have the stamp of 2 and 3 stars, proofhouse speak for modified and improve modified. Francis Sell had very clear notions of what the bore of a 20 gauge gun should look like. His 1977 article spells out 1 1/2" forcing cones, 1 1/4" long chokes and .620 bores, about .005 overbore. The choke parallels were 1.110", and he was very specific about that. The barrels on my copy duplicate what he wrote, and are polished exceptionally fine, beautiful work on the interior polish and finish.

A copy of the 1968 Richland Arms catalog, featuring the 707:



The 20s were available with 30" tubes. The barrels on my gun measure
27 3/4", and, like yours, it comes in right around 6 1/4 lbs, not svelt for a 20, but, for one designed to launch 1 1/4 oz loads of bigger lead shot at waterfowl, probably realistic. I think it is just a few ozs heavier than my 16 gauge Nitro Special, but, that gun has 26" tubes. Neither gun is burdensome, IMHO.

By the time of the 1977 article, Mr. Sell had moved onto a Bernardelli two barrel set gun, with 28 and 30" tubes that he had restocked himself. It had a long, capped pistol grip, and a beavertail, very similar to the stocking of the Richland guns he wrote about earlier in his career.

It is common for people to contact me wanting to know more information on a French gun with no makers name on it. What is even a bit more odd is owning this gun, with both an importers name, and a manufacturers name on it, and finding not much about either. I can say for sure that a magazine writer somehow convinced an Italian firearms manufacturer to build 20 gauge 3" guns to his exact thoughts and then lent a hand to the importer handling the guns by doing some of the markerting.

If anyone has anything to add about the Richland Arms guns, I'd love to hear it. The model 200 Richland Arms guns in the same catalog ($50 cheaper than the Italian 707, not an insubstantial sum in the mid 1960s) were indeed available in 16 gauge, and I've never seen one. I have seen a Richland model 200 in 20 gauge with 22" factory barrels, and it was a fairly low quality piece.

Best,
Ted

"The chokes are noted on the box as being Mod and Full. The marks from the proofhouse in VT tell a different story, however. They have the stamp of 2 and 3 stars, proofhouse speak for modified and improve modified."

Ted,
I wasn't aware that Proof Houses marked the actual constriction of choke as proofs. I always thought it was the manufacturer who did that.

Would you please tell me which Proof House you are referring to that stamped the chokes on the gun you are referring to.

Thanks.

Gardone, Val Trompia. Italian guns from the 1960s, for sure, were marked with actual choke constriction.

French guns are not. Just finished bore diameter, 9" from the breech. French guns with choke tighter than about Improved Modified are marked, "Non Pour Le Balle".

Best,
Ted

Ted;
The date stamps on mine said 1967, though as I recall I ordered it just a bit prior to the 1968 GCA putting mail order out of business. I had ordered it From Herter's Inc. Had reqd Francis Sell's articles & had been looking at these guns & then a new catalog came in from Herter's with it priced @ $129.95 or $50.00 off the $179.95 list so ordered one. The next gun I bought was my First Lefever, a 30" 12ga FE damascus for which I had to sign the 4477 form. In 1970 I had it shipped to Italy for a new set of 26" steel barrels, forget exactly what chokes I asked for but they ended up @ .012" & .024". Once I got it back it became my #1 go to gun for near everything I hunted. I was into reloading so just adjusted the loads. As I recall at that point in time I gave $1230.00 for the FE & than around $150.00 for the new barrels. I did keep the original damascus barrels intact though. I could have saved a few dollars by letting them strip them for parts, but wasn't enough to justify losing the originals in my opinion, have never regretted saving them. At the time I was having doubts but was not fully convinced the damascus ones were safe to use. Had I known then what I now know I would not have had the new barrels made.

Ted, I note that on your catalog copy, the 30" 20ga is advertised at 6 3/4#, the 28" gun at 6 1/2. Sounds like you may have won the wood lottery. But in any case, that's not light by 20ga standards. I've seen an Ithaca SKB Model 100 20ga or two with 28" barrels (and all the 20's were 3" guns, except the relatively rare--in sxs--skeet guns) that come in a bit under 6 pounds. Wouldn't like to touch off a 3" mag in any of those . . . and in fact never have. Especially the 30" Richland 707 would probably be OK for no more 3" mags than you'd be likely to use in a day's hunting. Wouldn't want to shoot a round of trap with them, however. But they mostly are--as someone noted--somewhat lower velocity than the 1330fps 12ga 1 1/4 oz load that was the standard for a long time . . . and a whole lot slower than today's 1500 fps 1 1/4 oz 12ga loads.

Donald Trumps snarky and somewhat crude though extremely hot Northern Italian cousin.

Who is Val Trumpia?

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Double Gun Jeopardy.

Agree Larry 6� to 6 3/4 lbs is not particular light for a 20ga. Personally though I would not want one much lighter if chambered for 3" shells I have had a couple of older 20 gauge guns chambered for the shorter shells which weighed a full 7 lbs though. One was a Syracuse Arms A grade with the ejectors which could be turned on or off. It was 28" barreled also. Shot it well enough but sent it down the road, figured if I was going to carry a 7 lb gun it may as well be a 12. ONLY advantage I've ever seen to a Small Bore is if its ultra light to match the bore.
That Richland 707 though at 6�lbs with capability of the 1� oz loads in 3" shells for limited shooting was a pretty versatile gun though. While certainly not fancy it did seem to be a solidly made gun, capable of much hard use. The limiting factor was to the shooter, not the gun I would not have wanted to have shot a round of trap with it with those heavy loads either, but didn't really notice the "Kick" that much under ordinary hunting conditions. For my use though I primarily shot a 12 oz load, as I recall I only bought one box of the 3 inchers, just had to try them out.

Pardon my misque on spelling-if I wrote, spoke and read better in Italian, I'd know more about my old gun. I think Gardone is correct, anyway.

Best,
Ted

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Out of production Italian guns for $200.

Shoot, Ted, if I spoke Italian better someone might, if they tried really hard, think it could possibly be some form of vaguely human esque communication. I could write a book about the stories of my "Italian" in Italy.

That Richland looks like it would make a pretty nice squirrel gun.


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Today is where your book begins...(the rest is still unwritten) Natasha Bedingfield

I did the vast majority of my Squirrel hunting with a .22 LR, but on occasion I would do a bit of "Meat Hunting" with a shotgun. The 707 was great on the bushytails on the occasions I used it. I loaded a few of those 3" empty hulls with 1 1/8oz of #5 lead & they were sorta like Ma Bell, they'd reach out & touch someone. Most of my squirrel hunting was in the Tennessee Hill country & iot didn't really matter if said squirrel was on the up-hill or down-hill side of me. I usually kept one of those in the full barrel & a load of 1oz #6 in the modified barrel for squirrel. I had mostly greys, only rarely al Foxy.