American Gun Co.

[Harold Lee Pickens]

Anybody able to enlighten me on this? It was a 20 ga sidelock, marked armor steel, and Featherweight on one of the side plates . It looks like a Smith at first glance. Nice shape, with a fair amount of case color , 28" barrels. Could pick it up for $450, but looking at a VHE 20 tomorrow( cut barrels, crap) so held onto my cash. Nice, light gun.

[Drew Hause]

Here you go. Not great guns.
Featherlight (not -lite nor -weight) 20g guns have been reported, possibly for Sears

http://www.picturetrail.com/sfx/album/view/20091267

https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1OxZo5Tkvx2G8eYf747QR9B5RJdN6Siu5JGIhfguSXX Q

[Rick Losey]

Harold


they have been discussed here at least a couple times

http://parkerguns.org/forums/showthread.php?t=11423&highlight=american

http://parkerguns.org/forums/showthread.php?t=8569&highlight=american

[charlie cleveland]

they seem to be good guns i have a 12 ga with steel barrels and it has killed a few turkeys for me..i lentghed the chambers to 3 1/2 inch it really shoots well but is a shoulder bruiser with the 3 1/2 inch loads of 2 1/4 ounce..weighs in at 7 3/4 lbs...in my opinion they are made of good stuff a 20 ga would be a fine gun to add to anybody s collection...charlie

[Drew Hause]

Charlie: almost all American Gun Co. marked Crescent shotguns were manufactured prior to the introduction in 1922 of the Western Cartridge Co. 12 gauge ‘Super-X Field’ 2 3/4 inch 1 1/4 ounce 3 3/4 dram equiv. shell. The gun was designed for 1 1/4 oz. 3 dram loads. It is quite likely that the wall thickness at the end of your chambers is now inadequate, and a catastrophic rupture is possible, if not likely.
Brother, do what you want, but please do not have a child nearby when you fire one of your turkey loads.

[charlie cleveland]

drew i have measured the barrel thickness and it is well above the standards for a 3 1/2 inch gun...do nt worry there are never children or adults at my side when fireing heavy or lite loads..the old american 12 ga i have as fired a lot of heavy loads at the dr pepper can..charlie

[Steve McCarty]

My dad's little Knickerbocker marked American Gun Co. My dad got this gun, as used in 1931 on his 10th birthday and he shot it his entire life and it was the first gun that I shot and when I was about 10.

http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa23/GermVMA211/Shotguns/062.jpg (http://s200.photobucket.com/user/GermVMA211/media/Shotguns/062.jpg.html)

[charlie cleveland]

lot of sinamental vaue in that gun for sure...i seen a coupla 28 ga guns like your 20 ga but they were outa my price range but woula like to have had them...i have a 410 double with hammers it is a childs gun it is so small and its a american arms gun...in my opinion a poor mans s lc smith...charlie

[Steve McCarty]

lot of sinamental vaue in that gun for sure...i seen a coupla 28 ga guns like your 20 ga but they were outa my price range but woula like to have had them...i have a 410 double with hammers it is a childs gun it is so small and its a american arms gun...in my opinion a poor mans s lc smith...charlie

Strange thing about my dad's little 20 is that the LOP is a tad over 14" which means a man can shoulder the gun. While a full and Mod gun it is quick in the brush and my dad used it for woodcock when we lived in upstate NY. Tender little birds. I was about 12 and I'd get two. He shot everything with that little gun, from ducks to woodcock. We also shot hand tossed skeet. My dad was an unbelievable shot with that gun! Seriously now, I don't recall him ever missing...not once. He was over 6' and that little gun looked like a tinker toy in his hands.

[Steve McCarty]

I spent my 8th grade year living in Bucklin, KS. My grandfather, my dad's dad, loved to hunt. We'd sit on the fender of his old Buick and my grandmother would drive down the country roads and we'd shoot dove off of the wires, or flying. We'd also get pheasants when they flushed from the brush alongside the road. Jack rabbits were thick. I'd shoot them with an ancient 22 bolt gun of some kind. We didn't eat the jacks, but we did the cotton tails. The meadowlarks sang a constant song. The last time I was out there, in 2010, I didn't see a'one.

[Harold Lee Pickens]

Steve, that is a very nice looking gun and history. The one I saw was just as nice and fit me ok also. I thought about it too long and it got sold. Oh well, you cant buy them all, and I still have a couple other guns in mind.

[Dave Noreen]

From the spring of 1905 when the hammerless guns were introduced --

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v316/Ansleyone/H%20and%20D%20Folsom%20Arms%20Co/AdMarandApr1905.jpg

From H & D Folsom Arms Co. Catalogue No. 18, probably right after WW-I --

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v316/Ansleyone/H%20and%20D%20Folsom%20Arms%20Co/No6KnickerbokerCatalogueNo18.jpg

H & D Folsom Arms Co. used the American Gun Co. name on the shotguns they sold, made at the factory they owned in Norwich, Conn., aka Crescent Fire Arms Co. from about the turn of the Century to shortly after WW-I. A couple of years in there they had them marked Folsom Arms Co. --

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v316/Ansleyone/H%20and%20D%20Folsom%20Arms%20Co/FolsomArmsCo1910page6_zpsd54c898a.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v316/Ansleyone/H%20and%20D%20Folsom%20Arms%20Co/FolsomArmsCo1910page5_zpse1514035.jpg
Circa 1910.

Sometime in the early 1920s H & D Folsom Arms Co. began having the guns marked Crescent Fire Arms Co. --

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v316/Ansleyone/H%20and%20D%20Folsom%20Arms%20Co/No60EmpireHammerlessCatalogueNo23.jpg

In 1930, H & D Folsom Arms Co. sold their gun factory to Savage Arms Corp. and they combined it with their recently acquired Davis Warner Arms Co. and formed Crescent - Davis Arms Corp. and operated into 1935.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v316/Ansleyone/Crescent-Davis/Crescentpg2.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v316/Ansleyone/Crescent-Davis/Crescentpg3.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v316/Ansleyone/H%20and%20D%20Folsom%20Arms%20Co/PC100007.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v316/Ansleyone/H%20and%20D%20Folsom%20Arms%20Co/PC100006.jpg

[Steve McCarty]

Wow! What great posts. Yep, my gun is exactly like those shown. Same forearm latch, side locks, wrist, etc...

The story was that my grandfather bought that little Knickerbocker from the fellow who was the champion trap shooter in the state of Kansas. So it came with a pedigree. My dad also borrowed his father's Remington Model 11, which eventually came to me. It was heavy as lead. Had a Polychoke. Dad said that one day he and his father were hunting, and his dad somehow stuck the muzzle in the mud and didn't know it. Bang! The last inch of the muzzle opened up like a blunderbuss. On went the Polychoke. I hunted with that gun in college and learned to shoot over the hump. Someone broke into my apartment and ripped it off. I hope there is a special place in Hell for people who steal people's prize guns.

[Steve McCarty]

Steve, that is a very nice looking gun and history. The one I saw was just as nice and fit me ok also. I thought about it too long and it got sold. Oh well, you cant buy them all, and I still have a couple other guns in mind.

Those American Gun Co guns aren't too expensive, but I seldom see one in good condition....I NEVER see one in good condition. They are round 100 years old and were heavily used.

But mine is a serviceable gun. It is a little loose, and the forearm wiggles some, but not so you'd notice. It is a great chukar gun. It is light as a feather.

I have several chukar guns. A model 37 Ithaca and wonder of wonders a very nice Winchester Model 59 (If there is such a thing.). Now I'm not a big fan of autos, but that 59 is also light and has a plastic barrel so if I drop it it's no big deal.

http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa23/GermVMA211/013.jpg (http://s200.photobucket.com/user/GermVMA211/media/013.jpg.html)

There are all kinds of warts on a model 59, but this one works okay. They made them with interchangeable chokes (the first to do so), but this one doesn't have it, but I did buy another barrel so I have a full and modified gun. I use the Modified barrel. Works okay for me and I don't mind using it in the rain.