Hudson Bay Imperial Number 2

[mooncoon]

I bought a Hudson Bay Imperial #2 a while ago, in extremely tired condition. Almost finish now although my stock work leaves a lot to be desired What is strange is that the model number does not seem to be unique to any feature of the gun; some had straight stocks, some with pistol grips, some with one barrel and some doubles. No consistency in the level of engraving or quality of wood. Also strange is that the Imperial series apparently began around 1890, which seems awfully late for percussion shotguns

cheers mooncoon

 

[crooked barrel jed]

If the bottom scrap of wood is where you started, your woodworking looks pretty good from here

 

[jpc]

Interesting and thanks for sharing ☺

 

[mooncoon]

If the bottom scrap of wood is where you started, your woodworking looks pretty good from here

one thing that caught me by surprise was that there is a sort of ridge of wood above the lock that takes the place of the metal shelf over the lock, found on British guns. I was working from the right side of the gun and that area was more or less missing so I had to inlet a patch and move the lock down etc. The stock is broken in two through the lock area and you can see where a previous owner tried adding some pieces while retaining most of the original stock. As I said in an earlier post, I remain puzzled about why these double guns were made in small guages; this one takes about 1/2 ounce of shot and is a very short range gun.

cheers mooncoon

 

[Longwalker]

I read somewhere that were used often as muskets, not shotguns. Firing a patched round ball for shooting bigger game at very close range. Lead shot / musket balls were very expensive and they used the minimum practical amount. Might be why they were such small bores.

 

[tiriaq]

Here is an unused, new old stock replacement lock.



A lot of the single and double barreled HBC muzzleloading shotguns were 24ga, about .57 bore, the same as most of the later 19th century trade (serpent sideplate) guns.
They could be used with shot or ball. A 24ga round ball from a smoothbore gun is quite capable of killing large game, within the range limitations of a smoothbore gun. I'm not sure round balls were patched. I suspect that the were wadded above and below the ball. These were very light, handy guns.

 

[mooncoon]

In the case of double guns, the question in my mind is; how well were the barrels regulated ? I want to shoot some patched roundball from mine to find out I have opened my barrels out by 10 or 15 thou to reduce the pitting. Luckily the barrels were fairly thick to start with. They also had a noticeable bend in them and I think I have straightened most of that out, although the barrels are much stiffer than most

cheers mooncoon