If anyone had told me that one day I'd be shooting a British double, I would have told them my chances of winning the Lotto were much better.
The second side-by-side I ever owned, a Sauer 16-bore, has now been in my possession 20 years. It sports double triggers, which I've come to favor once I made the relatively painless conversion from the single selective variety. Likewise, I fell in love with the first straight-gripped fowling piece I ever bought--one of the original Ithaca SKB 280s in 20-gauge. (If only SKB had the good sense to fit that little number with two triggers and a splinter fore-end!)
A while back, an upturn in my disposable cash reserve, due mainly to the propitious sale of a couple of nice but expendable shotguns, left me with the means and the desire to search for a new gun.
I'd just concluded a season during which a little Parker-Hale 28-gauge combining all the features I prefer--twin triggers, straight grip, short barrels, splinter fore-end, open chokes--had served me very nicely on woodcock and early season grouse. It seemed to me that a similar piece, but in either 20- or 16-bore, might be just the ticket when I felt the need for a bit more punch. Such a gun, I reasoned, could handle our abundant Iowa pheasants as well as ruffs and timberdoodles.
Initially, my search centered on the American classics and the Spanish and Italian doubles. It didn't take long to grow discouraged with the market in used American side-by-sides. I was prepared to make a low four-figure investment, and I quickly confirmed that I'd have to do so if I wanted even a lowly Trojan or Sterlingworth in something other than 12-gauge and in decent shape.
A dealer showed me a Parker Trojan in 16-gauge which typified the problems I had with the American classics. The asking price of more than $1,300 seemed a bit steep to me for a gun that retained almost no case coloring. The bluing and the wood, however, were acceptable, the bores spotless and the action tight. But when I threw the gun to my shoulder, I found the top lever staring me in the eye. Not only did most of the American doubles have too much drop for me, but they also wore pistol grips. Although not entirely rejecting the thought of an American classic, I shifted my focus to the European guns.
I knew from my experience with the Parker-Hale that I could get the dimensions and features I wanted in a European gun. I also found, however, that the prices were much higher than when I'd acquired my Spanish 28-gauge. These days, a new AyA or Grulla will set you back close to $3,000, and even the Churchill model Parker-Hales now top the $1,000 mark. Among the Italian offerings, the deservedly popular Bernardellis and Berettas now start in the $1,500 to $2,000 range.
Make no mistake. I've owned or at least shot virtually all the guns I've mentioned, and there isn't a lemon among them. Had I been set on a new gun, I certainly would have made my final selection from among the Continental offerings.
As it was, I was prepared to take my time, and to look at as many good, used doubles as I could. I continued my search, principally in trade papers and hunting magazines, but also at gun shows and sporting goods stores. As I did so, I began to detect a strange quirk in the market: you could actually buy a used British double for the same money, or less, than you'd pay for one of the new Spanish or Italian guns.
Obviously, we're not talking about Purdey or Holland and Holland. The price of either of those, and a few other easily recognized English master makers, will get you a decent house in some areas I know. But there is, or was, a "low" end to the British market before World War II. Chances are you've never seen the names before: Cashmore, Rosson, Alexander Martin, and Cogswell and Harrison, to name a few.
Of these "lesser" firms, the only one to survive intact is W.C. Scott. Through further research, I learned that they all made good, but certainly not great, guns. Their demise, much like that of our own American classic doubles, was a matter of economics. After the war, almost the only survivors were those firms that made a few "best" guns each year, and they did it by demanding ever-higher prices for these works of art--from a very limited clientele, but one that was willing to pay the price for a superb product.
Then, in an ad that included many fine foreign and American guns, I found a gun that grabbed my attention. A call to the dealer convinced me to take the plunge. One look, on removing the little Alexander Martin 16-bore from the shipping box, told me I hadn't been wrong.
My Martin is a "plain brown wrapper" piece, as are many of those made by the small British firms. (I use the term British rather than English because the firm of Alexander Martin, as well as several of the other pre-war makers, was located in Scotland.) It has extractors and almost no engraving--in other words, much like a bottom-of-the-line American classic.
However, the wood is better figured than what I've seen on comparably priced American guns, and the checkering is finer. In the case of my particular gun, the wood and bluing were almost unmarred, and the receiver retained about half its case coloring. The action was tight. When I threw it to my shoulder, instead of looking at the top lever or fences, I saw about the last six inches of barrel and an appropriately sized ivory bead. Other than the addition of a thin pad and the lengthening of 2-1/2 inch chambers to 2-3/4 inches, my Martin is certainly all original.
From my standpoint, the ideal thing about the gun was that it was ready to go, straight out of the box. The chokes were advertised as cylinder and improved cylinder, and, although the left barrel patterned closer to modified, they were quite suitable for my purposes. The gun sported 26-inch barrels and scaled out at exactly six pounds, the lightest 16-gauge I've ever handled. In fact, I feared it might be too light until I saw what I could do with it on skeet from the low-gun position.
I'm writing this in the afterglow of a 10-day safari to upper Michigan in pursuit of grouse and woodcock. The Martin did its job there as well as it did on clays. And while I'd still take almost any bet against my ever owning a London "best" gun, I can assure you that it is more than likely I'll acquire another of the "plain Jane" Britishers some time in the future.
Once more, I want to emphasize that I'm not knocking the Spanish or Italian copies of the British game gun. I'd go with them if I were buying new, especially with even the W.C. Scott guns costing three or four times more than their Continental counterparts. For those willing to buy used and willing to do some looking, however, I'd certainly recommend that you consider a British double.
Whether the British guns are made any better than the American classics is beyond my technical expertise. L.C. Smiths are perhaps a bit cheaper than the British guns, and Ithacas are a good bit less expensive when you can find a nice one.
My final choice was not made out of anti-American snobbery but because I prefer the features that are typical of British guns. Their American classic counterparts tend to have barrels of at least 28 inches, are choked modified and full, wear a pistol grip, and have a minimum of two inches of drop at comb.
All one has to do to understand this very basic difference is to remember what kind of hunting we were doing in America in the 1920s and 1930s, compared to what was going on in Great Britain. In many parts of this country, waterfowl shooting predominated, thus the longer barrels, tighter chokes and somewhat heavier guns to handle the more potent duck and goose loads.
Even in American upland hunting circles, what we think of today as tight chokes were the rule back before World War II. Remember William Harnden Foster's "little gun"? It was, in fact, a very tightly choked 16-gauge.
In Great Britain, on the other hand, Churchill's thinking on guns and shooting had a significant impact. The Brits were shooting mainly driven upland game, and they were doing so with guns that had barrels as short as 25 inches (the "XXV" was a Churchill innovation) and open chokes.
There as here, the 12 was the gauge of choice. Many of these British 12s, however, had short chambers--2-1/2 or even 2 inches--and were designed for loads of no more than 1-1/16 ounces of shot.
Most of these 12s tip the scales at well under seven pounds--many a good bit closer to six--and both 2 inch and 2-1/2 inch 12-gauge shells are available in the states. Also, the 2-1/2 inch guns in particular can be lengthened to 2-3/4 inches, giving the owner a very wide range of light but potent upland loads from which to choose, and at a very much more reasonable price than the shorter shells.
Before you get too deeply involved in considering a gun from Great Britain, however, you should be aware of the drawbacks--and there are a few. First, nearly all these guns have some cast off. Being right-handed, I've found that cast off does indeed help me hit better, as it is supposed to do. But some right-handers used to stocks with no cast, and nearly all left-handers, will find the bent stock something of a problem.
When buying mail-order, as I did with my Martin, it is always wise to ask about dimensions. In addition to problems with cast, some English guns may have stocks which are too long or too short, and others--usually those made in the early 1900s--will have significant drop, like their American counterparts. Most reputable dealers allow at least a three-day inspection period, so if dimensions are too great a problem, the gun can be returned.
Also like American guns, there are many British doubles around with Damascus barrels. The majority of these are nitro-proofed, and British experts--in addition to some American gun writers--claim there is no danger using them with modern loads. Others have been sleeved, a practice far more common there than here. While I wouldn't hesitate overly much to try a sleeved gun I really liked, I'm still a bit of a skeptic about the unsleeved Damascus guns.
Is there a British gun in your future? That's obviously very much a question of personal taste. What I'm suggesting is that if you like the features of a British game gun, the current market favors consideration of the real thing in addition to the currently produced, well-made Continentals.
Copyright (c) 1996 Larry Brown. All rights reserved.
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