D Grade Engraving Question
 

It seems like most D Grade hammerless guns have pheasants on the floor plate as do all the Repro D grades. I came across this 1907 gun with ducks (at least I think they are ducks) on the floor plate. Is this unusual? noteworthy? significant?... or even interesting?

My #2 frame DHE has ducks really similar to that, unfortunately, my #3 frame of the same style has pheasants or grouse or whatever those things are. Wouldn't you think that on what's obviously a duck gun they'd put ducks?

The engraving doesn't matter though, it still kills ducks just fine. I shot some with it Saturday and they didn't know the difference.

DLH

The early hammerless DH grades had a dog flushing a bird on the floorplate; Remington resumed this on the last few hundred guns. There are also some periods noted when outside engravers did DH floorplates. I would say that the deviation from the standard four winged somethings is a plus.

Best, Austin

Destry I feel your pain. My 1903 DH 16ga,26in titanic, choked Im/cyl and Mod, an obvious bird gun, would look great with pheasants or grouse on the floorplate,but nooo,it's got DUCKS! Go figure!:rolleyes:

My 2-frame DH12 has some kind of upland birds on it... I think. They don't look like ducks to me.... but what do I know?

Very generally speaking, three ducks or sharptails or pheasants on the floorplate are found on a GH while four gamebirds are found on the floorplate of a DH. I've seen five birds on CH and BH guns but I've never seen six birds on the floorplate of a Parker. This is not to say they don't exist...

My new DH 8 gauge has 4 ducks on the floorplate and (unusually) ducks on each of the sidepanels in place of the traditional setter and pointer. With its 9lb 2oz D3 barrels it is not a quail gun so for this I am grateful...

Here are a couple of examples of D engraving from various periods. I believe the oversized ducks are what we commonly refer to as flying turnips. The only one I would consider really nice is the one with two pheasants on the ground and two in the air.

Waterfowl must have been quite plumb at the beginning of the last century. Thanks for the pictures Larry.

Larry, those "turnips" must have been launched from a catapult - no way they could have gone aloft under their own power :shock:

Fortunately they are the figment of someone's weird imagination or sense of humor . . . looks like Shel Silverstein's work :)