American Gun Company 16 G Hammer

[J. A. EARLY]

Not exactly a fine gun but this one has fluid steel and is all there. Any opinion on shooting one of these if the barrels are unaltered steel?

I'm guessing this is a cheap wall hanger, but everything works and I would shoot it with low pressure stuff if I get it.

Opinions?

[OLD GEEZER]

Jerry: I have American gun co. 28 ga hammer and a 410 hammer and I shoot the heck out of them and find them to be of decent quality. Thomas

[charlie cleveland]

thomas is right these are pretty fair old guns..i have a 410 hammer gun that shoots good it was made for a very small person... charlie

[B. Dudley]

If noting looks seriously wrong, shoot it. I have owned some of these and shot them with no issue. Most all of them were fluid steel. A few are seen with Damascus barrels from time to time. The crescent hammer guns are of ok quality and design. The fit and finish is just not always the best and they often are loose.

[J. A. EARLY]

Thanks for the info. I was out of town and did not put my measuring tools in the truck. So I had no way to take measurements of the chambers, choke, and barrel thickness.

But on the way home I bought it anyway after I saw Thomas' reply. The shop only had a ruler, and remembering a 16 has a usual bore diameter of about .662 I guessed exactly 5/8" across the bores at the muzzle, thinking it was about .625 thus full and full. Should have known. The 28" barrels that were marked "Choke Bored" turned out to be .659/.659 a true cylinder in the right and .657/.651 skeet. I looked good and could have bet they were not cut but must have been 30" to start with. They had 2.5 inch chambers as I suspected but the barrels were .035 and .045 minimum thickness with good bores. Shot it twice with 2.5 inch low pressure 8s. It must have been some old timers' bird gun. It tore up one of Charlie's famous Dr. Pepper cans (my drink of choice also) at 25 yards. A .003 shim on the hook and the same size under the forend and it is as tight as new. A frontier pad took off 100 years of rust. I'll take it after rabbits one day.

[charlie cleveland]

glad you bought that rabbit gun a fellow just needs one.. maybe two... i don t have a rabbit ear 16 teen maybe i ll get lucky like you jerry and find a decent one...i bet shes a rabbit getter for sure..yep you just can not pick a better target than a DR PEPPER CAN.. charlie

[OLD GEEZER]

Jerry: I like them so much that I will be picking up a 28 Ga. Hammer gun this weekend on a trade I hope. Thomas

[Ben Rawls]

"Back in the day" these guns were regarded fairly highly. At least that's what an old 'smith told me years ago. He said when he was a boy they were regarded like LC Smiths. (That was before WWI)