6th Annual Upper Canada Double Gun Classic - Take Two!

Aside from having the bookseller Mike from Between Season joining us, I have it on good authority that, like the last event in 2019 (oh so long ago), The Greek will be attending along with a table full of vintage guns that are actually for sale.
 
Not long to wait now.

I expect there will be more modern doubles on display and on the shooting line, along with fabulous vintage doubles from the golden age of shotgunning, and my all-time favourites, hammerguns!

It will be to no one's surprise that I will be bringing an array of pin-fire game guns to amuse the curious and arouse the uninitiated. I promise some real beauties this time...

My latest addition is entirely thanks to CGN's own Ashcroft, whose eagle eyes spotted this exquisite example, an Irish 'Best' by William and James Kavanagh of Dublin, circa 1865, complete with acid-etched damascus barrels of which the Irish were very fond. The metalwork is faultless, and the engraving is amongst the best scrollwork I've come across. This is how a breech-loading gun was done right, 150+ years ago.

RS82vd4.jpg


See you all soon!
 
Not long to wait now.

I expect there will be more modern doubles on display and on the shooting line, along with fabulous vintage doubles from the golden age of shotgunning, and my all-time favourites, hammerguns!

It will be to no one's surprise that I will be bringing an array of pin-fire game guns to amuse the curious and arouse the uninitiated. I promise some real beauties this time...

My latest addition is entirely thanks to CGN's own Ashcroft, whose eagle eyes spotted this exquisite example, an Irish 'Best' by William and James Kavanagh of Dublin, circa 1865, complete with acid-etched damascus barrels of which the Irish were very fond. The metalwork is faultless, and the engraving is amongst the best scrollwork I've come across. This is how a breech-loading gun was done right, 150+ years ago.

RS82vd4.jpg


See you all soon!

Stunning
 
Not long to wait now.

I expect there will be more modern doubles on display and on the shooting line, along with fabulous vintage doubles from the golden age of shotgunning, and my all-time favourites, hammerguns!

It will be to no one's surprise that I will be bringing an array of pin-fire game guns to amuse the curious and arouse the uninitiated. I promise some real beauties this time...

My latest addition is entirely thanks to CGN's own Ashcroft, whose eagle eyes spotted this exquisite example, an Irish 'Best' by William and James Kavanagh of Dublin, circa 1865, complete with acid-etched damascus barrels of which the Irish were very fond. The metalwork is faultless, and the engraving is amongst the best scrollwork I've come across. This is how a breech-loading gun was done right, 150+ years ago.

RS82vd4.jpg


See you all soon!

Another beautiful pinfire. WOW!!!
Its wonderful that we collectors are helping each other with our particular passions. Cheers to Ashcroft.
Maybe one day I'll make the trip to Oshawa and join the fun. Until then, this forum will keep the fires burning.
Bill
 
Confirmed Attendees- 18 :

Canvasback
ParksPipes
Northolme
Pinfire
1963 Beretta.
Londonshooter
Mark Dube
Caludio O
Rick B
Brybenn
Dilly
AR15meister
Ninepionter
Bluedcanoe
Raymund
Upland28
Pointersrule
2shot

There are others coming who are not members of CGN. Because I'd like us to have a running total of expected attendance, I'm not going to publish their names but I am going to keep a running tab of their numbers so we all know.

Non CGN Confirmed attendees - 6
(Harvey, Wally, Samir, Ken, Adnan, Trey)

Can I ad a plus one ? My friend who's not a gunnut would like to come with me .
 
I gotta cancel guys...had a conflict pop up with the scheduled spring NAVHDA test weekend.

Sorry. I will have to bring my DIY shotgun stock to the next one....
 
I was prompted by another thread (on enjoying spending time with old guns), and with the upcoming CGN Double Gun Classic, I couldn't help but think about what makes a double gun special. Sporting double guns have been around for quite some time; some authors credit the Italians sometime in the late 17th century as being the first to do so. While gunmakers across the European continent built ever-improving guns, the British, a bit slow to the party, finally began to shine. In the 1790s, Joseph Manton worked out the shape, dimensions and characteristics of the double-barrelled game gun as we know it today. We use cartridges now and have figured out how to hide hammers, but the rest is perfectly recognizable, and the statistics are remarkably similar.

According to William Wellington Greener, Manton and other equally recognizable names "placed English guns ahead of all competitors." Greener also said, "The French invention of composite cartridge-case and breech-loading was turned to practical account by the English, who have unceasingly improved upon the original idea." While his views had a natural bias, he was not wrong. Despite everyone else having a longer history of making sporting guns, all copied the English makers and Manton's style. The best French, German, Belgian and Spanish guns of the past 150 years are copies of English designs, proof of Greener's observation (though a double-asterisk has to be put beside France, which has maintained an affinity towards its outside-the-box technological creations).

Those funny-looking doubles, some call them over/unders, are a more recent invention. No sooner than someone fused two barrels together, stacking them was a viable idea – though not a popular one. Germany's Merkel might have produced the first commercially successful o/u around 1900. Soon after, the Italians (Beretta) and the Brits (Woodward) came up with sleeker designs in the 1920s and 1930s, and Browning's Superposed became the most successful of them all, patented in 1923 and produced from 1930 onwards.

Regardless of which design direction you prefer, each double gun is steeped in history, whether new or old.

vdPbPn4.jpg
 
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Regardless of which design direction you prefer, each double gun is steeped in history, whether new or old.

And those that join us in Oshawa will see a lot of history in one place!
On another note, I'm hoping that we will have a yard sale type table again. I have some guns and accessories I would be sure to bring if there was an interested buyer and could list here but I guess that is counter to the EE rules. If anyone wants a 12 ga loader, I listed one just now on EE. Won't be bringing it unless I have a buyer lined up.
 
As an FYI, Oshawa Gun Club suffered some damage due to today's storm. The trap fields, the skeet fields, and the 5-stand are out of service until further notice. The sporting clay course is still operational

Hopefully they are back up and running before June 4th
 
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