The seriously flawed first edition of Good Guns, rife with errors and badly illustrated by me, i(s a …perhaps justifiably… rare book. But it does contain a line drawing of the Platonic ideal of a boxlock gun, and despite the pernicious French influence, as seen in the exaggeratedly curved”shadbelly” stock, it looks a lot like …
Tag: Double Guns
Convergent Evo -in Double Guns!
I had no idea, when I started measuring these, just how close they would be. They are of different origin and design. One is an LC Smith so- called Featherweight 12 from †he 1920,s, built and designed in New England and New York. One is a typical 12 bore British game gun (though proofed for …
Fine Shotguns: A Review
Subtitled The History, Science, and Art of the Finest Shotguns from Around the World, John Taylor’s big- format paperback from Skyhorse is both moreambitious and far more difficult a task than it might appear to be, andfor the most part he has succeeded splendidly. No, that’s not fair; heHAS succeeded; that is to say, I have …
A few Images
Some images to hold you–we are heading up to to Santa Fe to see Pluvialis! (Perhaps better known today in our crowd as RockStar Helen, to her embarrassment..). We’ll be back Sunday. Reid may report on their dinner in Denver later… he and Connie, Anne “Anyushka” Price and Chas and Mary attending… And the countdown …
The LC 16: what it IS
The “weird gun” is finished. A 16 bore wildfowl gun that weighs close to 8 pounds, with 30″ Damascus barrels and full chokes, it appears distinctly pre – modern. Which it literally is- an early grade 2 LC Smith from about 1904. But it was not unique in its day. So many of us use …
Old & very old guns
Latest restorations. More text later. But the 12 “featherweight” handles like a Best Brit gun, while the “Askins- Keith special” 16 is almost 8 pounds and has 30″ barrels and tight chokes. The prairies were not bucolic England… To see the details like Damascus, click to enlarge…
Italian Design
Italian gun design, like Spanish, has looked to England, albeit with more decorative engraving and gaudier wood. Now, things are changing, some radically, some more subtly. For the radical, see Benelli’s re- imagining of the over and under. I cannot warm to this angular- lined gun, but you should not bet against Benelli. Years ago, …
“A simple linear gesture..”
LC Smith Field Grade Featherweight– an honest Yankee double, finished. Nothing has cleaner lines. This 6 1/4 pound, 28″ 12 bore from, probably, the twenties, is a perfcctly balanced gun.
Unique action
France has always gone its own merry way in design– in cars, think of the Citroen; in guns– well, more seem unique than those of any other country (can “more” and “unique” coexist this way in a sentence?) The first that comes to mind is the sliding breech Darne. I have had many. Carlos Martinez …
Nostalgic Found Photo
Easy days– Lily, Holland and Holland 16, bunny: