W&C Scott 8 Gauge

[ArtS]

I think my gun benefits with the ball from being a cylinder bore, allowing a round ball very close to the bore size. I want to test the bore riding slugs I picked up for the 16 ga combo gun in my other thread. I think they may do well too. If not, I will find a a near bore size ball. As I said, I have several 10's that are cylinder or close to it and they all were built before 1875. The 8 gauge Scott was built in 1872.

[Mike Franzen]

That’s a great looking and deadly looking gun. Could that have been made as a single shot smooth bore rifle?

[ArtS]

Hard to tell. No sights but short barrelled and with heavy chamber and barrel walls and cylinder bore. My guess it was built as an all around gun to use for upland game and waterfowl. It was sold in Boston by Scott's only N.A.distributor at the time.Doubtful someone there bought it as a rifle. The odd thing is that I have a reprint of the Scott catalog from that year, and with all the many models they cataloged, there were no single shotguns. I don't know if it was a one-off special or not, but I haven't been able to find a reference to anything similar at all.

[Mike Franzen]

Try asking John Campbell. He goes by Kensal Rise on the forum. If anybody would know it’s probably him. Keep us posted on what you find out. I live just up the highway from you in Alexandria. We should get together and shoot sometime.

[Mike of the Mountain]

Art, I'm curious as to what the LOP and DAC/DAH are? Cool looking gun. Thanks for sharing this with us.

[ArtS]

Originally Posted by Mike Koneski

Art, I'm curious as to what the LOP and DAC/DAH are? Cool looking gun. Thanks for sharing this with us.

Drops are about 1-3/4" and 2-3/4". LOP is 14-1/2".

It weighs less than 10# and balances rignt on the hinge pin. It feels incredibly good, sort of like a SBT with more drop, but it is more dynamic because there is no forward weight bias. It really would make a nice all around gun.

The two things in my mind that really stand out are the action sculpting and the lock/hammer. The action appears to be a double forging that has been totally sculpted in an asymmetric pattern. The left side was reduced in three distinct steps, and the right side left closer to original to match the lock, but the firing pin angled to strike the center barrel. The hammer is massive compared to my 10 gauge Parkers, but comfortable and very easy to cock. The feel of cocking has that certain smoothness and precision you feel with really high quality lockwork. The operation itself takes some getting used to. Due to the double angled firing pin and the period of the lock, you need to return the lock to half cock before opening the action. It will open without it, but it is hard on the mechanism. The move to the half notch is probably 75% of the total travel. This seems odd, until you realize that the half cock is a safety notch and the movement on to the full cock position is only about 1/2" and is very light and fast to accomplish.

One other thing to note is that I have seen several comments over the years that British and European 8 gauges seem to have larger chambers than the Parkers etc. I spent quite a bit of effort getting ready to try this gun and finally came up with a die to reduce the industrial shells. I also tried removing the outer brass layer from the Winchester industrials, but this left them with a thin rim. After shooting a couple of slug loads I, like an idiot, tried the industrial shells and found that they fit perfectly without alteration. The condition of this gun is incredibly original and the bore diameter is correct for an 8 bore, so I have to presume that this was the normal chambering.

All in all it is and interesting gun, and I want to shoot some trap and clays with it. Being a rifle kind of guy since I was a kid, every time I pick it up and cock it, an image goes through my mind of a guy in sweltering heat with a pith helmet, a large blackpowder bore rifle and an elephant with huge tusks. It is from an era not long after and related to a gun that a colonial hunter would have used. It makes you pause to think that U.S. Grant was the president when this gun was delivered to it's owner.

I have only owned two guns I thought might be worthy of a magazine article.

The first was the absolutely highest quality Collath I have ever seen, in person or in print. It was covered everywhere in high quality engraving, a briar stock, numerous gold inlays and lettering. The barrels were a work of Damascus art, struck to an extremely light weight, and with longitudinal reinforcing ribs on the back 8 inches of the barrels. These were milled into the barrel surface and the metal removed around them.I thought when I bought it that it was a 14 Gauge and that someone had opened the chambers to 12 Gauge. I found out after I sold it that it was likely one of the proprietary Collath chamberings, of which that was the most common; a 12 guage shell designed for a 14 bore barrel.

This Scott 8 gauge is the other due to it's quality, condition and "oddness".

[Bill Murphy]

I didn't reread the entire thread, but "This is a pigeon gun". I will wait for further comment.

[ArtS]

Originally Posted by Bill Murphy

I didn't reread the entire thread, but "This is a pigeon gun". I will wait for further comment.

That's the first mention I have heard of a Pigeon gun. I have never run across mention of such a model in the catalog reprints I have access to. In fact, I found no listing for any high grade single barrels. From the address on the barrel, this is one of the two high grades they made at the time. It is true it has no safety, but being a single I don't know if that would be an indicator. It was my belief that all pigeon shoots at that time used a two shot rule to down the birds, precluding a single. I that was not the case, it may well be. I would be puzzled by the cylinder bore barrel however. From the condition of the gun,measurements and examination of the bore, I believe it was made this way.

I still believe it was sold as an all around gun someone in the northeast US could use for small game, decoyed water fowl and deer or bear with ball or buck. The chambering/choke would be amenable to all of these.

[Mike of the Mountain]

Originally Posted by Arthur Shaffer

Drops are about 1-3/4" and 2-3/4". LOP is 14-1/2".

It weighs less than 10# and balances rignt on the hinge pin. It feels incredibly good, sort of like a SBT with more drop, but it is more dynamic because there is no forward weight bias. It really would make a nice all around gun.

The two things in my mind that really stand out are the action sculpting and the lock/hammer. The action appears to be a double forging that has been totally sculpted in an asymmetric pattern. The left side was reduced in three distinct steps, and the right side left closer to original to match the lock, but the firing pin angled to strike the center barrel. The hammer is massive compared to my 10 gauge Parkers, but comfortable and very easy to cock. The feel of cocking has that certain smoothness and precision you feel with really high quality lockwork. The operation itself takes some getting used to. Due to the double angled firing pin and the period of the lock, you need to return the lock to half cock before opening the action. It will open without it, but it is hard on the mechanism. The move to the half notch is probably 75% of the total travel. This seems odd, until you realize that the half cock is a safety notch and the movement on to the full cock position is only about 1/2" and is very light and fast to accomplish.

One other thing to note is that I have seen several comments over the years that British and European 8 gauges seem to have larger chambers than the Parkers etc. I spent quite a bit of effort getting ready to try this gun and finally came up with a die to reduce the industrial shells. I also tried removing the outer brass layer from the Winchester industrials, but this left them with a thin rim. After shooting a couple of slug loads I, like an idiot, tried the industrial shells and found that they fit perfectly without alteration. The condition of this gun is incredibly original and the bore diameter is correct for an 8 bore, so I have to presume that this was the normal chambering.

All in all it is and interesting gun, and I want to shoot some trap and clays with it. Being a rifle kind of guy since I was a kid, every time I pick it up and cock it, an image goes through my mind of a guy in sweltering heat with a pith helmet, a large blackpowder bore rifle and an elephant with huge tusks. It is from an era not long after and related to a gun that a colonial hunter would have used. It makes you pause to think that U.S. Grant was the president when this gun was delivered to it's owner.

I have only owned two guns I thought might be worthy of a magazine article.

The first was the absolutely highest quality Collath I have ever seen, in person or in print. It was covered everywhere in high quality engraving, a briar stock, numerous gold inlays and lettering. The barrels were a work of Damascus art, struck to an extremely light weight, and with longitudinal reinforcing ribs on the back 8 inches of the barrels. These were milled into the barrel surface and the metal removed around them.I thought when I bought it that it was a 14 Gauge and that someone had opened the chambers to 12 Gauge. I found out after I sold it that it was likely one of the proprietary Collath chamberings, of which that was the most common; a 12 guage shell designed for a 14 bore barrel.

This Scott 8 gauge is the other due to it's quality, condition and "oddness".

THAT IS AN AWESOME GUN!!!

[ArtS]

Originally Posted by Mike Franzen

Try asking John Campbell. He goes by Kensal Rise on the forum. If anybody would know it’s probably him. Keep us posted on what you find out. I live just up the highway from you in Alexandria. We should get together and shoot sometime.

Long drive. I live in Lexington KY, not VA.