A hunting hammergun?
For the past 2 or 3-years now I have gone on an expedition to understand how a hammergun might fit my ongoing needs as a bird hunter. When I started, the 1st thing I discovered was the depth and breadth of examples that have survived into this "modern" age. The 2nd thing I learned about the period of my interest (early 1870s thru the late 1890s) was this...things were better-made then.
to be continued...(Christmas preparations 1st today)
Allright, where were we, hunting hammerguns, right. I had some initial biases that I thought might be important, after using these guns with some frequency (for a few years now) a few thing have come into clarity for me. Fit is still very critical, as is weight and even chokes. Quality is also paramount! Lesser guns will work for time and then...problems inevitably arise. In American hammerguns, the Parkers are probably as good as it got (in guns with useable dimensions). Another thing that has become very clear to me is that good Damascus is pretty hard to beat, period. Any fears I might have had even a few years ago are now completely dispelled. I now only look for Damascus guns from that period as the later fluid steel guns simply weren't finished nearly as well. The wood and engraving are almost always inferior, and by a wide margin.
One initial bias was for back-action guns, & while that has become less of a bias, it still has its rewards. Backaction guns have narrower and more-rounded actions which make them slimmer and lighter while still being quite strong, in the English stock versions they seem to mount with surprising alacrity(!) for me. Another bias was to avoid underlever (Jones-type) guns as being too-slow. I now know better about them (although a side lever still looks very attractive to me). In short, I need a good fit, at a good weight (under 7-lbs if possible), for a gun with longer tubes (28-inch is the bare-minimum) and decent chokes (I've shot both no-chokes and full-chokes, perfection is somewhere in the middle of all that). I now clearly prefer non-rebounding locks (for their ease of cocking from half to full) and I actually like wedge forends now (for their simplicity and ease of use).
In my informal survey of the American guns, the Parkers seem to be at the top of the heap (I have enjoyed my fishtail 1-frame gun very much), but...the British guns seem to better fit my ongoing needs. I will likely send a few of my initial purchases down the road of commerce and start to look for appropriate replacements (very soon). Subgauge guns are not out of the question, but they are fairly rare (and accordingly expensive) when compared to the veritable sea of 12-bores floating around.
Ahh, I so love a good chase.
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