doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com A Brief History of the "Brush Gun"

Best of luck, Karl. I was up there with friends last Sunday. We found good numbers of woodcock. They hunted our best spots yesterday and didn't find any. Several days of rain, then strong NW winds and snow showers. I find it hard to believe they've all started south already. I was mostly checking new spots here in northern WI yesterday. No joy in most of those. But I did find several in a usually reliable covert.

I'd forgotten about this thread and will work on restoring the images

Arthur Davenport Fuller

The Brush Gun concept must date to shortly before 1897. I have a 16 gauge Greener, 26" barrels, 5 and 3/4 lbs, made in 1897, which I think must have been made for American use.

http://zincavage.org/Greener16gauge.html

David: did Greener catalogs list "Brush" guns?

There were no hits for "brush shotgun" in any of W.W. Greener's:

The Gun and Its Development: With Notes on Shooting, 1885
http://books.google.com/books?id=LAsAAAAAQAAJ

Modern Shotguns, 1891
http://books.google.com/books?id=FW8CAAAAYAAJ

The Breechloader and How to Use It, 1893
http://books.google.com/books?id=LdE1AAAAMAAJ

The Gun and Its Development, 8th Edition, 1907
http://books.google.com/books?id=3HMCAAAAYAAJ




Lefever ad in the November 22, 1913 Forest & Stream "For Trap, Brush, Field, Blind"



1916 Forest & Stream "For Field, Traps or Blind"

I don't have Greener catalogs. I saw nothing about brush guns in the Greener book. My guess would be that the concept is American, and originates from an article in an American sporting serial that appeared a bit before 1897.