Last edited:
Grainy photos. Let's see them.
- Thread starter Londonshooter
- Start date
the spank
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Planet Earth Wearing My Tinfoil Hat
Since this is a shotgun sub-forum I guess it's safe to assume that's a 4:10 or ???
Londonshooter
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- SW Ontario
Nice to see your rifle. Thanks for joining in. Browning A-Bolt2 gold medallion 30.06.
Last edited:
I do!
1963beretta
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Vaughan, Ontario
Franchi 48
Here is a W&S 12 bore I bought from Intersurplus. I had to have the comb lowered to accept my large Teutonic head so I sent it to Chris Dawe who also opened the chokes up to SK1 and SK2 for grouse hunting. This one came with 28" bbls and 2.3/4" chambers so it was a nice shotgun to start with. Chris did a very nice job on the stock. It was a nice surprise to see some nice grain to emerge after he did his magic. Very pleased and a shotgun I won't mind dragging through the alders.
Londonshooter
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- SW Ontario
The very best quality blanks have symmetry of grain and figure left and right. As seen in the stock of this B grade Parker from 1906.
Beautiful guns. The ‘best’ arrangement of grain is straight through the hand for strength, and ending in a more varied pattern nearer the butt. While some modern guns have spectacular grain patterns, they lack the straight grain through the hand, which makes me wonder if they will hold up after significant use. Perhaps it is a non-issue for stocks that are bolted on, rather than a side-by-side with more inletted wood.
In an attempt to get this thread over the 1,700-view mark, here is a Westley Richards, from 1865:
What I find both amusing and remarkable is that while the 19th-century British shooting fraternity admired a well-made gun, and beautiful stocks adorn so many of these (and which must have looked even better when newly finished), fancy wood was never a consideration in choosing a breech-loading gun, or its maker. Perhaps the result of so few being in circulation, you got what you got. The year this Westley Richards was made, he likely made fewer than ten of this pattern; if you wanted one, it would have been made to order, not pulled from a rack of them.
The social media of the day was the weekly sporting newspaper The Field, published in London but available by train delivery and by post throughout the Empire. Shooting was one of the gentlemanly pursuits covered within its pages, along with horse racing, fox hunting, and many other country sports. Articles and editorials on guns and shooting were a regular feature, and correspondents filled the letters columns with back-and-forth questions and answers, praise and criticisms, and a fair amount of insults, accusations etc. Basically, the usual mix of fanboys and trolls one expects in social media, along with useful discussions, and lots of advertising. The newspaper also hosted several public trials, to objectively test guns and ammunition, away from the fantastical claims that were made. I recently went through 914 editions of the newspaper, from its inception in 1853 to 1870 (when I felt the need to stop), or some 23,180 pages, as part of my research. How many times did stocks, or the attractiveness of stocks/wood grain, receive a mention? Not once.
What I find both amusing and remarkable is that while the 19th-century British shooting fraternity admired a well-made gun, and beautiful stocks adorn so many of these (and which must have looked even better when newly finished), fancy wood was never a consideration in choosing a breech-loading gun, or its maker. Perhaps the result of so few being in circulation, you got what you got. The year this Westley Richards was made, he likely made fewer than ten of this pattern; if you wanted one, it would have been made to order, not pulled from a rack of them.
The social media of the day was the weekly sporting newspaper The Field, published in London but available by train delivery and by post throughout the Empire. Shooting was one of the gentlemanly pursuits covered within its pages, along with horse racing, fox hunting, and many other country sports. Articles and editorials on guns and shooting were a regular feature, and correspondents filled the letters columns with back-and-forth questions and answers, praise and criticisms, and a fair amount of insults, accusations etc. Basically, the usual mix of fanboys and trolls one expects in social media, along with useful discussions, and lots of advertising. The newspaper also hosted several public trials, to objectively test guns and ammunition, away from the fantastical claims that were made. I recently went through 914 editions of the newspaper, from its inception in 1853 to 1870 (when I felt the need to stop), or some 23,180 pages, as part of my research. How many times did stocks, or the attractiveness of stocks/wood grain, receive a mention? Not once.
