Every once in a while the gun buying bug gets me and this time I chose a Webley and Scott 700 imported by Abercrombie and Fitch in the 50's. I'm hoping to gain some insight into it as I am thinking now that it is either a brilliant piece, or maybe there was a good reason no one else was interested in buying it. It is a 20 gauge and the ad for it stated 3" chambers. And it has 20 gauge chambers, -but the bores are 16 gauge! Its proof is 16, 3 1/4 tons, 2 3/4". The chambers are indeed 3", in fact they are actually 28" as the 16 gauge bore size is so close to the 20 gauge chamber size that a 20 gauge chamber checker slides in all the way to the chokes. There are no inserts in the chambers that I can detect. It seems clearly to have been built this way, although I can find no other shotgun in this configuration on the entire internet. I have not shot it yet. I thought it would be a nifty little grouse gun. It is just 6 pounds and points beautifully for me. It looks hardly used. Single trigger.
My questions would be, why was this built? Are there others? My guess is it was made for the American market and 20 gauge was more popular than 16 so they chambered the gun so that future owners could buy shells at Walmart?
Could there be any advantage in such an overbored gun besides that? Any disadvantages?
And finally, what loads would be appropriate?
I'm hoping someone finds these questions interesting enough to give their insights.
Last edited by Michael in NH; 05/12/22 01:36 PM.
