Fine shotguns : the history, science, and art of the finest shotguns from around the world

306 Pages·2015·12.49 MB·English

by  Taylor

To Peggy, who enjoys fine shotguns and shoots them well. Few women have
visited as many shotgun factories, gunsmiths, and gun shops as she, and fewer
yet say, “The next new shotgun in the house is mine.” She is the joy and light of
my life, and without her sweet kindness, this book would never have been
possible.
Contents
Foreword
Acknowledgments
CHAPTER 1
What Is a High-Grade Shotgun?
CHAPTER 2
The Shotgun—A Brief History
CHAPTER 3
Great Names, Great Guns
CHAPTER 4
America’s Best
CHAPTER 5
Britain: The Great Makers
CHAPTER 6
On the Continent—Belgium, France, Germany, and Austria
CHAPTER 7
Spain—Olé
CHAPTER 8
O Italia
CHAPTER 9
Locks and Actions
CHAPTER 10
Hammer Shotguns
CHAPTER 11
Pairs, Garnitures, and Specials
CHAPTER 12
Small-Gauge Shotguns: The Darlings of the High-Grade Guns
CHAPTER 13
Shotgun Stocks—Wood, Wood, Wood!
CHAPTER 14
Fit and Finish
CHAPTER 15
Checkering
CHAPTER 16
Butts
CHAPTER 17
Barrels
CHAPTER 18
Finishing the Metal
CHAPTER 19
Engraving
CHAPTER 20
Executing Engraving
CHAPTER 21
The Bespoke Shotgun
CHAPTER 22
Shooting High-Grade Shotguns
CHAPTER 23
Ammunition for High-Grade Shotguns
CHAPTER 24
Caring for High-Grade Shotguns
CHAPTER 25
The Necessary Gunsmith
CHAPTER 26
Storing High-Grade Shotguns
CHAPTER 27
Accessories
CHAPTER 28
Cases for High-Grade Shotguns
CHAPTER 29
Shopping for High-Grade Shotguns
Appendix A: High-Grade Shotgun Manufacturers and Importers
Appendix B: Helpful References
Appendix C: Manufacture Dates
Appendix D: Proof Marks
Bibliography
Index

Foreword
T
o build a fine rifle, a gunmaker must be a competent mechanic and have an
artist’s eye for line and proportion. But to build a fine shotgun, it takes all
that and a little black magic as well.
Rifle shooting, which is at stationary targets, is static, but all shotgun shooting
is dynamic because what you shoot at is always moving. For this sort of
enterprise, you need a dynamic gun, and a shotgun that does not possess that
intangible mixture of balance and weight and feel that makes it an extension of
your will can never be a fine shotgun. British shooters, who have studied
shotgunning as intensively as anyone, call such firearms “numb,” as in no feeling,
unable to respond.
They call them worse, too. Many years ago I had a coaching session with
Holland & Holland’s great shooting instructor Rex Gage. The only decent
shotgun I owned at the time was an American-made over/under that had found
great favor among trap and skeet shooters because it weighed a ton, and once
you got it swinging you couldn’t stop it.
When I pulled it out of the case, Gage’s face fell.
“Oh my dear chap,” he said, “you’re not going to hit a thing with that dreadful
club.”
He was right, and out of sympathy he loaned me a Holland shotgun for the
lesson.
A skilled rifle shot can pick up almost any good rifle and do about as well with
it as he can with any other good rifle. But a skilled shotgun shooter will always
shoot best with one particular gun. After long (and usually costly)
experimentation, he will have found that shotgun which, by its unique
combination of fit, balance, weight, and sight picture, and unknown voodoo, lets
him shoot better than anything else.
As Gene Hill, a formidable shotgun shooter, once told me in his mushy
mumble:
“David, my lad, if you ever find a shotgun that really fits, shoot the thing until
it falls apart in your hands.”
That one magic gun is more than likely to be a fine one.
And there are other benefits.
In the early 1970s, when I shot ATA trap seriously, I used a highly popular
semi-auto gas gun. It threw lovely patterns, and was very unpunishing to shoot,
but it broke so often that I eventually owned three. One I shot; one was kept in
the trunk of my car to replace the one I was shooting when it broke, and one was
always at the gunsmith being repaired.
In 1985 I got tired of this and bought a Perazzi MX-3, through which I have
poured ammunition for 25 years. It has never broken or hollered for mercy in
any form. Fine shotguns will do this. They go on and on unfailingly. It’s one of
the things that you spend all that money for.
A word or two about engraving and inlaying, since they are an intrinsic part of
most fine shotguns. Much of what you see ranges from ghastly to unspeakable,
and even expensive guns can be blighted by rotten work. Winchester Model 21s,
in particular, are often afflicted with gold inlay work that looks like I did it. There
are comparatively few artists who have really mastered this art, and their work is
very expensive.
Two kinds of shooters can get away with engraved guns: very rich shooters
(because the very rich can get away with nearly anything) and very competent
shooters. Going back to my trapshooting days, there was a fellow on our circuit
who owned a Ljutic (pronounced loo-tic) with a colossal gold inlay on the
receiver flat. When the sun shone on it you could see the thing from the far end
of the trap line. Normally, this massive mound of gold would have subjected him
to mockery, scorn, and derision, except that he was a sensational shooter, and
when he showed up everyone else suddenly remembered they had to mow their
lawns. No one laughed at his gold blob, or at him.
My favorite inlay consists of neat gold lettering on the rear face of the barrels
of a London Best live-pigeon gun that I examined 20 years ago. The letters said:
“Kill it, dumbass.”
I don’t think this gun was built for a British shooter.
Now, a word or two about this book. It is a damned good one, but it can’t
make you an expert on fine shotguns. That takes, quite literally, a good chunk of
your life, tons of shooting, and a chance to learn from people who have all sorts
of arcane knowledge. At a Safari Club International convention, at the Fabbri
booth, I once listened in awe as the gentleman who ran it delivered a lecture on
how to detect non-factory modifications on Fabbris. It revealed a depth of
knowledge that I didn’t dream of.