American 20th Century Side by Sides

[jeffery c]

How does this Tobin look to everyone as to originality?
https://www.gunsinternational.com/gu...n_id=101525704

[Daryl Hallquist]

This is serial no. 1000. It is the lowest serial number found and seems to be the first Meriden Sidelock.

[Researcher]

Looks pretty honest to me. Probably better than 90% of them you'll find. I suspect the barrels may have been reblued some time ago.

That gun is a No. 40 Featherweight Grade.

No. 40 Featherweight Grade, Catalogue No. 307.jpg

The grades in the U.S. Tobin catalogs I have are No. 20 Standard Grade, No. 30 Expert Grade, No. 40 Featherweight Grade, No. 45 Premium Grade, No. 21 Trap Grade, No. 50 Special Pigeon Grade, No. 55 Model Grade and No. 60 Model Grade. Unfortunately, about half of the Tobins one encounters don't match any of the pictures in the catalogues.

[Bruce Day]

Colt. The initials are original and match mine.

[jeffery c]

Originally Posted by Bruce Day

Colt. The initials are original and match mine.

That is cool, Bruce that the name matches yours. That's in really nice shape-- original barrel finish do you think? I've read Colts rated as the finest made American doubles, are they nicely made and engineered? I have pretty much only Colt handguns and like Colt's guns in general. I've been looking for a nice hammerless for quite a while.

[Chris Robenalt]

Sounds like you've read some McIntosh! Don't forget the Remington 32...
My buddy and I once had the same plan as you Jeff. Now we have too many and not enough time to shoot them all. We did venture off and explore some English doubles. We also took on a few hammer guns each! There are many fine doubles out there, enjoy your future acquisitions!

[jeffery c]

Originally Posted by Chris Robenalt

Sounds like you've read some McIntosh! Don't forget the Remington 32...
My buddy and I once had the same plan as you Jeff. Now we have too many and not enough time to shoot them all. We did venture off and explore some English doubles. We also took on a few hammer guns each! There are many fine doubles out there, enjoy your future acquisitions!

Honestly, some of my guns don't get shot too much, but I do try to cycle them through when I go hunting. I could get by with my 16 EE Lefever by itself as a practical matter!
Realistically I'm looking at 10-11 guns--Parker, LC Smith, Lefever, Fox, Ithaca: these five I think of as the principle makers because of combination of long production, large numbers and quality. Sort of the classic 20th century ones. Add Remington, Baker and Winchester 21, these three I see as covering a shorter time period but made in large numbers, good quality and availability. Stevens 5000/5100/311, Winchester 24, and Iver Johnson are probably not as fine a gun, but I kind of like less expensive guns too. I've found less popular guns are hard to sell when the time comes to sell, so I try not get to get too aggressive buying them.

[Dean Romig]

If we’re including OU’s let’s not forget the Marlin 90.





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[Researcher]

If we’re including OU’s let’s not forget the Marlin 90.

Don't forget the Savage Model 420/430 pre WW-II, and just post WW-II the Morrone.

Morrone, 1951 Gun Digest.jpg

[jeffery c]

Originally Posted by Dave Noreen

Don't forget the Savage Model 420/430 pre WW-II, and just post WW-II the Morrone.

Attachment 90445

O/Us are not part of my plan, but I have wanted a Savage 430 and keep an eye out for them periodically. They seem to have nice wood most often.