doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com value British guns with stock extentions

I break gun buyers into shooters, shooter-collectors, collector-shooters, and collectors. Collectors value originality, high grade /uniqueness, scarcity, brand, provenance, etc. Collector-shooters value collector factors but expect to shoot the gun --- well of for great fun. Shooter-collectors value shooting factors above collector factors. Shooters are happy with gas pipe barrels, die cast zinc actions, and balsa stocks (figured or not) if the gun shoots well.

Individuals are more or less unique, so they are entitled to their own set of wants and wishes.

DDA

Paul,
Thats good to know for future reference.
Brent,
I think I can answer that because before I bought the Churchill I did extensive research (homework) to the extent that my eyes hurt! According to the literature (The house of Churchill, Hadokes book, the Blue Book of gun values) My gun is an early prewar #1867 and best quality boxlock. At the time Churchill only made a hammer and hammerless sidelock as well a one boxlock. The call for best quality is evidenced by the Churchill monogram on the bottom of the receiver and done prior to the grading of the guns after Edwin's death in 1910, which was only put on his best work. My gun so marked is the precurser to the Hurcules, considered the best there after. Prewar guns also have a square forend diamond opposed to the later elongated one.
I believe the feather weight designation came post WW1, also the third fastener was dropped. The gun at Hill Rod and Gun I believe represents something near the Hercules quality. Market is usually $9,000 for one in 98% condition.
Although done as nicely as I've seen, I think that $5,500 is on the high side since it has the 25" barrels instead of at least 26" ones. A better decription of the gun would have helped also. In spite of the 25" barrels, those barrel walls have to be very thin to make the 5lbs. 5oz. weight. Mine is 5lbs. 12oz. and light enough for my long walks.
Hope this helps without being overly long.
Karl

Thanks Karl, that is perfect.

gunsaholic,
To your point, I bought a German SxS hammer combination gun with extended stock. The extension was "let in" to the original stock and was held on only by longer buttplate screws. Take the extension off and the buttplate fits the original stock.
Mike

I am definitely in the shooter category, but I just couldn't live with a wooden extension. If I found a gun I really wanted that had one, I might consider buying it a discount and replacing the wood extension with a spacer and a recoil pad. I can live with that, and one sxs I use a lot is set up this way. So if the wooden extension is over 1.5", I would just pass on it.

How did that work? The extension would need a longer buttplate if it was anything like the extensions I've seen.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as this thread shows! I would personally rather have a well done stock extension with matching figure and grain like Mark Larson does so well, than a thick Silvers pad. I have seen previous extensions on which Mark has perfectly matched the grain and figure with the original stock. He also does his own extensions and matches the grain and figure perfectly to the original stock. In both cases with seamless results. That said, if all you need is an extra half inch or so of LOP, a Silvers pad or a leather covered pad looks fine to me. There is no right answer on any of this, just personal choices made by us so that we can enjoy the old shotguns we like to shoot.

I have no problem with a wood extension on my shooters. As I usually need an even longer stock than commonly found, I use a leather Tourbon slip on pad. It covers the extension and I think looks quite nice.

Horn extensions 3/8� or less, and if done right (highly buffed and then checkered) look great to me. Any extension over 1/2� is hard on my eyes, except a recoil pad, leather covered being the best. Any pad over 1� looks like hell too. Like the horn, I�ve seen some thin ebony extensions that look very nice too, but again, no more than 3/8�, less even better. So, Brent......if these parameters are met, I don�t discount the guns too much when I make a purchase, especially if I intend to use them. An unsightly extension, and if I see I have no good fiscal recourse to remedy, I discount them by at least 25-35% if I�m doing the buying, and use that as a bargaining chip with the seller. Sometimes it works with a seller. At least that�s how I do it.

Brent,
It just looked funny at the toe. The wood didn't match either.
Mike