BrentD: Nice William Evans 16 BTW.
Also, and more to your point, many (if not most) hammer guns have learning curves (and some can be fairly steep). Hunting with one presents challenges that have been unheard-of for, what... the last 2 or 3 generations of hunters? The world has moved-on (in so-many ways) and seeing one afield is very rare now. Other than using one myself (a few years ago now), I've never encountered another in the field (sadly, I suspect that's probably more of a comment on where and when I actually do go afield).
With the passage of time, good or even "great" useable examples are now becoming fairly uncommon. For the much earlier and perhaps more-refined versions, because of their mostly-now very advanced age and the technologies employed in their making (almost exclusively by hand & with long-obsolete [i.e., "primitive"] steels), they have care & feeding components well beyond what your average shotgunner is willing to tolerate or even bother to understand, at least...in order to use them properly and safely. They have become so-much more art than utility, when you consider the many inherent "disadvantages" some of them now possess. I recently heard the term "boutique" being used to describe a very early example, and it's an apt description. Ignorance here is not only expensive, it can be maiming (and even lethal). Not using ammunition with the proper levels of pressure (or even the correct dimensions) and/or not utilizing rigorous and then timely cleaning techniques will inevitably lead to a disaster (in one form or another). And yet....for me at least, they represent some of the greatest examples of a gunmaker's artistic expression that I've ever seen or held. Seeing several exceptional examples again recently (down at Whittington) has really brought that back to me.
Last edited by Lloyd3; 05/05/22 07:25 PM.
