Here’s my dissent. I can’t get past the screws, so bore away.

-Victor

:rotf:

Fair point. The ones on the belly are particularly egregious.

Reverse the screws. (Using a proper screwdriver) They may line up

John, I was considering trying that. I'll give it a shot but the LH screw is clearly incorrect. The one in front of the trigger guard also appears to be non-original.

Can you tell me if I should try switching/rotating all three (that is, are all three the same screws) or only swap the left and right sides?

I'll let someone more knowledgeable than me (won't be hard) but I believe the screw nearest the trigger guard is different

I believe the screws were individually made and marked for with hole they went into. Offhand I don’t remember the code but someone may or researching the forum could turn it up.
BTW … welcome to the PGCA! You made a quality decision.

For those who may be interested, I just received the research letter. Unfortunately, there is no information with respect to how it may have originally been choked.

I have now had the opportunity to pattern it and with 1 oz of #9 shot, virtually all the pellets are within a 16" circle at 20 yds and within 24" at 30 yds. It seems apparent both barrels are choked very tightly.


The letter indicates the gun was ordered by J.A. Johnston of Pittsburgh PA. This has led me down a bit of a rabbit hole trying to understand the relationship of JA to JH Johnston of the Great Western Gun Works.

Most everything I've found regarding GWGW relates to JH. However, there a few references to JA including a catalog from 1907 I found offered for sale.

Might anyone here have insights into J.A. Johnston?

Interesting that you can connect both J.A. and J.H. concretely to Great Western Gun Works.
At least that is a solid point of departure.