3Dogs, here ya go...........

Dave Parks

Dave Parks

Well-known member
This is a miniature 28 ga. English percussion that was built around 1850. It was most likely built for a boy or a small woman. It has a 13" LOP, an 18-1/4" barrel and is 33" over all. I showed it to Steve when he was down here and he really got a kick out of it. It weighs about 4.5 pounds.

I have a gun smith that is making a new main spring for it and then I plan to shoot it a bit. It's a little too short for Judy, but I think that we could shoot it if I put one of my slip on pads on it. These pic's did not come out well in the bright sun light, I'll take some more later. Just wanted you to see it.
28Perc-1.jpg


Gun has an ebony nose piece at the front of the stock.
28Perc-2.jpg


The ramrod is solid ebony and has this treaded cap on the end
that can be removed to expose a threaded screw for removing the load at the end of the day without having to fire the gun.
28Perc-3.jpg


Gun has a decent bore, nice checkering & engraving. Hooked breech Barrel is 1/3 octogon to 2/3's round. brass bead front site, siver inlays as seen and a silver thumb plate which is unmarked. Stock is of old English walnut with original piano finish. This thing is going to be a fun little quail gun when I get the spring installed. I figure about 45 grains of 2F and 1/2 oz. of 8's should be about right.
28Perc-4.jpg
Another nice find on auction arms and no hassle with shipping or registration. Get some pic's of the new boat at sail for us. Emerald in Italian is spelled how? :^)

Dave
 
Sweet piece Dave.Besides getting it in mechanical condition,will you refurbish it or leave it original?
smeraldo is pronounced zmer-al-do.You try it!
 
Joe, I leave these old guns original as restoring them completely ruins their value. It used to be the same with Parkers, etc. But now people seem to accept reblueing and refinishing the old doubles. I wish this gun would have been a double like my English percussion 12 bore.

Years ago I had one of the first guns ever made by L.C. Smith. It was a percussion double about 22 bore on the right and a rifled .32 caliber barrel on the left. The rear sight was a peep-sight that screwed into the tang. It was highly engraved and had deer and bird silver inlays on the stock. Probably a special order gun made by Smith back in the 1870's.

I shot a few Merino rams with it when we had the guide business on Santa Cruz Island, but most of the time it just hung on the wall. Years later I sold it to a guy at a gun show in a cash/trade deal and about 6 years later I swa it for sale in the Shotgun News for $4,500. Came to find out it was one of just a few known early L.C. Smith guns made before he really got started in his short lived SxS business. Marlin bougfht him out years ago. I get a kick out of Marlin's ads for their so called remake of the L.C. Smith guns. They are really trying to pass the new guns off as L.C. Smiths when the guns look nothing like and Elsie and Marlin is having them made in Huglo, Turkey just like everyone else is (Remington, Smith & Wesson, Kimber, etc.).

You go sailing in your "Zmore-al-do" and have fun. I have to go get ready for the realestate people and the folks from Canada coming today to look at the property.

Dave
 
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