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Attention Fox fanatics: a super nice 16g Fox CE is coming up for auction on Sunday, August 31 at Robert Foster & Co. in Newcastle, ME. Details about this gun are just coming in and these are the only pics I’ve seen of it (courtesy of the auctioneer).

The gun is serial #303 006, putting it at about 1929-1930. It has 28″ bbls, a straight English grip, a Kautsky single trigger with selector, and ejectors.

I talked to one of the guys at the auction house about it and is sounds like the the bores and bbls are sound, the wood is decent, and everything is tight and in working order. I have some suspicions about the wood, though. It may be refinished. The only way to really, though, is to see it an inspect it yourself.

Wow! Here’s unusual double barrel shotgun: a 20g James Woodward & Son, London, Round Body Under & Over. Lewis Drake & Associates has it on their site. Guns like this are they reason why Drake has a reputation for stocking some the finest doubles available anywhere.

This Woodward has 26″ bbls, a straight grip, and it was made in 1935. To get another look at it’s round action, check out this image.

While 20g Woodwards are hard find, Round Bodies like this are almost unheard of. I believe Christie’s auctioned off a few of them 5-6 years ago as part of Sir Joseph Nickerson’s collection. Woodward also made at least one 16g O/U Round Body. There’s a great color picture of it on Plate 15 of Boothroyd’s The British Over-And-Under Shotgun. I’m not sure if they made any more.

Check out this image to see how a Round Body compares to a standard “square frame” Woodward 20g O/U. This one is coming up at Julia’s in October 2008 (lots more great guns). It features 2 sets of bbls: 28″ and 32″.

In 1909, Boss & Co introduced their famous over-under-shotgun. James Woodward & Son followed up with their “Under and Over” gun in 1913. They ceased in 1948 when Purdey bought them out. Overall, they couldn’t have made more than 1,000 of them - probably a lot less.

Of those, most were 12gs - the UK’s favorite gauge for breechloading shotguns. Woodward also made O/Us in 16s, 20s, and at least one in .410 ( auctioned off for $200,000 in 1999). They may have some 28g O/Us, but I’ve never seen one.

Like all British bests, Woodward O/Us were expensive. In 1929, Abercrombie & Fitch charged $1,100 for a new Woodward O/U. At the same time, a new Purdey SxS cost $965 and a Parker CHE went for $245. In 1932, Ford’s new V-8 Cabriolet cost $610.

When they were first introduced, a lot of shooters were skeptical about O/U shotguns. Because of this, Woodward went out of their way to sell this gun. Below is the lengthy description Woodward gave their O/U gun in an old catalog. It covered 6 pages while the writeup for their standard SxS was just 2 pages long.

Woodward’s Patent “Under & Over” or Vertical Barrel Gun

The idea of building a gun with superimposed barrels instead of in the usual horizontal manner is not new, as it was employed to a certain extent in muzzle-loading days. We think, however, that we can claim to have made the first hammerless ejector gun on this principle as our initial attempt in this direction was made in 1908. The method of jointing the barrels to the action was on similar lines to the ordinary pattern gun: that is to say, the lugs or steels were placed underneath the barrels, the usual type of bolt securing the barrels to the action. We found, however, that this system was not satisfactory as the action had to be much deeper than usual to accommodate the barrels, the result being that the gun had a rather clumsy appearance.

We therefore made experiments with a view to placing the lugs at the side of the barrels instead of underneath them, but the chief objection was the difficulty of preventing the barrels from working loose in the action. This difficulty, however, was entirely overcome by a system of interlocking the barrels into the action which we designed and patented in 1913. From the first the gun was a conspicuous success, as extensive trials soon proved that the jointing is actually stronger than that of the ordinary pattern gun owing to it having two solid joint pins and a double acting bolt on each side of the barrels, coupled with the interlocking device which makes the barrels and action practically solid when the breech is closed.

Nearly all other makers of vertical barrel guns are designed with the lumps underneath the barrels (in exactly the same manner as our original “Under and Over” gun which we made in 1908) but in our opinion this system is totally wrong, as apart from the gun’s bad appearance the breech has to be opened much wider for loading than our gun and the bolt has to be placed so low down in the action to engage with the lumps that a top fastening is necessary, which interferes with quick loading.

The ejectors on our “Under and Over” gun are fitted with flat mainsprings instead of the coil springs fitted on all other makes of vertical barrel guns. The advantage of the flat spring is that it retains its strength indefinitely and does not require frequent renewal as do coil springs. The Woodward “Under and Over” gun has long passed the experimental stage, and since 1918 we have been continuously at work on orders, not only for this country but for America where the demand is increasing every year. We have introduced many detail improvements from time to time, and we now manufacture this gun confident that it will give the same service and reliability as the ordinary pattern gun.

Our “Under and Over” gun will be found to effect a considerable improvement in one’s shooting, its advantages over the ordinary pattern gun being that it provides very much quicker alignment, reduces recoil, and the shooter never loses sight of an overhead bird. Also, the gun feels considerably lighter in handling than what is actually scales, owing to its perfect balance and even distribution of weight.

We build this gun in 12, 16, and 20 gauge with any length barrel desired. Our 20-gauge “Under and Over” is greatly fancied by American sportsman, who usually order it with 28-inch barrels and chambered for the 2 3/4-inch cartridge. With 7/8-oz. of shot we can guarantee patterns of 190 to 200 pellets in a 30-inch circle at 40 yards, which makes this gun an extremely efficient weapon for all kinds of shooting.

We have always made a specialty of Ladies’ Guns and our “Under and Over” 16-bore will be found an ideal gun for a lade, especially for those susceptible to recoil.

20g Round Body image copyright Lewis Drake & Associates.

Regular square image copyright Julia Auctions.

Craig Doherty sent me an email the other day announcing a new litter of English Pointer pups.

This litter is a repeat breeding of Wynot Ace X Elhew Liebotschaner, the same breeding that produced Craig’s fantastic dog Wild Apple Jack - the 2007 Grand National Grouse Champion.

There are 10 puppies there. I wonder if one of them is a future Grand National Grouse Champion? They certainly have the breeding.

Ace won the National Amateur Grouse Championsip and the International Amateur Woodcock Championships in 2003 as a derby. Leibotschaner has both derby and shooting dog placements. Together, those parents have the potential to turn out some fantastic bird dogs.

BTW: Craig Doherty is the publisher and editor of Field Trial Magazine. If you’re into bird dogs and field trials, it’s a must read. Check it out.

Here’s a place where you can find out more about Coverdog Field Trials.

Image from Wild Apple Kennels.

The internet is a great thing. I’m always amazed by the information I can find online. What’s out there is incredible.

This Youtube video of Bob Wehles & crew with Elhew Cassie is an example of what I mean. Who would think that Youtube would have videos on it of these guys. But there it is.

This clip is taken from a couple of video produced a while ago called Wing & Shot. I have both of these videos and they’re pretty good.

In this video you get to see Bob Wehle, founder of the famous Elhew line of English Pointers, along with Earl Crangle and Dick Shear. Early and Dick are also pretty famous guys in the field trial world and they both trained a lot of great dogs.

The dog in the video is Elhew Cassie. She won the 1994 Grand National Grouse and Woodcock Championship. Check her out to see how a bird dog should work. Amazing stuff.

Shooting sportsman around the world know that there are a lot mysteries in the world of fine firearms, even today when the web makes information so easy to find. One of these mysteries is the gunmaker, or gunmakers, Guyot.

Over the years, I’ve come across a bunch of double barrel shotguns with the name Guyot on them. They have come in a variety of grades - from field-grade boxlocks to Best-quality sidelocks. All of them appear to have been from France and they have all been very well made.

Guyot, Arqer. A Paris, 18 Rue de Ponthieu

A few year ago, the gunsmith James Flynn wrote this article about a 16 gauge Guyot shotgun a customer had sent him. It originally appeared in Shooting Sportsman magazine. Here’s an image of gun, courtesy of Mr. Flynn:

This guns looks to have been made in the 1880s. With a bar-in-wood-style action and a push-forward underlever, this is an unusual hammerless gun. These features were more popular on hammerguns, like on this Purdey from Steve Barnett Fine Guns, but almost never seen on hammerless models. The gun also has Whitworth fluid compressed steel bbls and it’s a non ejector. I suggest you read the whole article and check out the pics to learn just how interesting and well made this gun is.

Hey London, eat your heart out.

Here’s another Guyot sidelock, courtesy of Lewis Drake and Associates. This is a 12g, Best-quality game gun, marked N. Guyot, Paris. It was made in the 1930s and it’s in near new, original condition:

Description from Drake’s site:

“Guyot, Paris, best 12ga. lightweight sidelock game gun. Wt. 6 3/4 lbs. Stock dimensions: 14 1/2″x 1 5/8″x 2 3/4″x straight. Superb 28″ chopper lump steel barrels with 2 1/2″ chambers and mint bores (.726″/.726″), choked .011″/.020″, with good wall thickness (.030″/.033″), retain 100% of the original black finish. Nicely engraved action with ejectors, hidden 3rd. fastener, bushed firing pins, articulated front trigger, and automatic safety. Beautiful bar action sidelocks with intercepting safety sears are of the highest quality and, along with the action, retain 95% of the original hardening colors. Nicely figured straight grip stock with checkered butt and splinter forend retain virtually all the original finish.”

Nice, huh? Looks at how the forend iron matches up and fits into the action. I’ve seen Purdeys that aren’t as well made.

Here are more pics of this fabulous gun. As you can see, it’s a best quality - I would say on par with some of the finest guns made in the UK.

Here’s another N. Guyot, Paris, sidelock, pic courtesy of Safari Outfitters. I saw this gun at a show last winter and I thought it was a Purdey:

It sure looks like Guyot was influenced by Purdey’s engraving pattern and overall style. The toplever is also Purdey-esque and the gun has chopperlump Whitworth-steel bbls — like a Purdey. Notice that the hinge pin screws in from the right-hand side on this one. On the Guyot above, it comes in from the left. Why? I don’t know. Also, the screw that fastens the lock to the action is blued on this gun. On the other one it’s color-case hardened. Again, I have no idea why.

Beautiful boxlocks, too.

Along with sidelocks, I’ve also come across some fantastic boxlocks by N. Guyot, Paris. Some of them have looked Belgian and reminded me of Francottes (I’ve heard of Guyots bearing just Belgian proof marks). Others have had their own look. Here’s a 16g, image courtesy Cabela’s Gun Library:

As you can see, this N. Guyot boxlock is a top-quality shotgun. It features Sir Joseph Whitworth fluid-compressed steel bbls (very English), ejectors, a hinged front trigger, and it looks like it intercepting safety sears (these would keep the gun from firing if the hammers dropped without the triggers being pulled).

Those dimpled pin/screw heads are real Continental, too. I like how the action is filed up on the gun, especially the shoulders/double beads on the sides. Whoever made this gun put a lot of time and work into it. Just look at the metal-to-metal fit. Very well done.

And finally, here’s a pair of 16g Guyots, also courtesy of Steve Barnett Fine guns. These are sideplated boxlocks with exquisite, full coverage engraving. Again, these are very nice guns.

So what do we know?

Not much, really:

-A number of gun makers and gun retailers who traded under the Guyot name.

-They spanned a timeframe from the last 19th to the mid 20th century.

-They made some very nice guns.

-They may have had some guns made by Francotte or by other makers in the Belgian trade.

Here’s what I’ve found out about the gunmakers going by the name Guyot:

This listing of Guyots from a guide to Europeans who were involved in the gun trade

And that’s about it.

Do you know any more about them? Do you have one?

Contact me and we’ll talk.

Thanks

Gregg@Dogsanddoubles.com

Check out this interesting article from yesterday NYTs: Furniture Restorer’s Allegations of Deception Shake Antiques Trade.

Reading this reminded me of the stories I’ve heard about similar deceptions in the shotgun trade. While we’ve had a handful of high profile forgeries, like the phoney Czar’s Parker profiled a while ago in the Double Gun Journal, we haven’t had a shotgun dealer caught in a scandal like the one described in the NYTs article.

(BTW: don’t confuse this phoney Parker with the “real” Czar’s Parker that James D. Julia Auctions sold in their spring 2007 gun auction for $250,000).

Is it going on?

Of course, that doesn’t mean that this kind of stuff doesn’t go on. I’ve heard lots of stories about forgeries and fabrications. Most of these schemes involved “upgrades” or undocumented “restorations.”

Before the internet, information about double barrel shotguns was hard to come by. Unless you spent all your time at gun shows, or worked at a shop that handled large quantities of fine guns, learning about grades, condition, and correct finishes was hard to do. This gave dealers an incredible amount of power. Unfortunately, some of them abused it.

When original is “original”

We all know that when it comes to side-by-side American shotguns like Parkers and Foxes, condition is king. A small number of dealers responded to this fact with accurate, well executed restorations. Others dealers went into the business of upgrading low-grade guns to higher-grade models - a plain jane Winchester M21 into a Grand American.

Here’s an excellent example of a 16g Lefever upgraded to an Optimus grade gun. This gun started life as an EE grade, serial #62058, with Krupp steel bbls.

Lefever’s are prone to upgrades because the manufacturer’s records are not available for them. Check out the gun’s altered serial #, too:

To the seller’s credit, they identified this gun as an upgrade.

Here’s another upgraded 16g Lefever Optimus that appeared on the market just days after the gun above did:

Steve Barnett has this gun and it’s listed as an upgrade. It’s serial #62059.

BTW: Images of Lefever 60,000/62,058 are from Jaqua’s Fine Guns, Inc. I’ve bought a couple of guns from these guns and all my transactions have gone real well.

Illegal there, perfectly legal here.

On English stuff, a few dealers used to buy out-of-proof double barrel shotguns at UK auctions and then import them into the US. These guns sold at a huge discount in England. But because we do not have proof laws here, these guns could be imported into the US. Dealers then sold to unsuspecting American collectors for full retail. Of course, the seller’s did not tell them that the guns were “out of proof.”

This scheme became quite a problem. So much so that the auction house started cutting the bbls on out-of-proof guns (some houses cut grooves in them near the breach end, preserving the ribs). This made the bbls useless and forced buyers to sleeve them or have new ones made.

Mumm’s the word

Condition is always a problem with English and European stuff, too. Just like American guns, English guns have been refinished, restocked, and modified over their lives. When these guns make it to the US, people are not always able (or willing) to tell a buyer just how original the gun is.

This best-quality Purdey is an excellent example:

Compare the gun above to this stunning, all original Purdey from Atkin Grant & Lang. See how the stock on the gun above is missing drop points (the little tear drops in the wood at the back of the lockplates)?

I’ve never seen a best-quality Purdey shotguns without drop points. I would bet a lot of money that the first one has been restocked (probably in Belgium) even though the seller does not mention this in the gun’s listing.

How to protect yourself
Unfortunately, the double barrel shotgun world is full of upgrades, restorations, restocks, and less than honest (or real knowledgeable) sellers.

That’s why it’s so important for buyers to enlist the services of an experienced ’smith or finish expert when they’re purchasing a fine shotgun.

Whenever I guy a gun, I have my gunsmith take a long, close look at it. I’ve seen a lot of guns, but there are still plenty of things I miss. If you’re not having you purchases looked over by a real expert, chances are pretty good that you’re missing things, too.

Collector’s clubs are another good resource for information and second opinions. Clubs like The Parker Gun Collectors Association, The L.C. Smith Collectors Association, and the A.H. Fox Collector’s Association, along with the Lefever Club’s Forum, are all places where you can find out more about these American guns and post pics for second opinions from knowledgeable collectors.

You can also try posting questions about other guns at the forum for Doublegunshop.com.

If you have any other questions about double barrel shotguns, or about where you can find a gunsmith or a collectors to help you with them, drop me a note at the email address. I would happy to help you out.

gregg@dogsanddoubles.com

On Sunday, May 17th, I ran Puck in the Mid-Coast Maine Field Trial Club’s spring trial. We ran in the Gun Dog Stake and Puck came in first, winning the event.

Image courtesy of Chris Mathan @ the Sportsman’s Cabinet.

Twelve dogs entered the Gun Dog stake and there were six braces in all. Each one was 20 minutes long, compared to the Shooting Dog stakes which were 30 minute events. (for some explanation of what all these terms mean, go here).

We ran in the last brace, paired with a young GSP named Nellie. Nellie is owned by Maine Guide and grouse guru Bob Foshay (pathfinder@fairpoint.net). Puck ran with Nellie last October when Bob and I spent a great day in the field.

The Gun Dog Stake started at 7am on Sunday morning. The day started out with gray skies and rain. My dog hates rain - so much so that she will not run in a heavy downpour. Luckily, we drew the final brace and by the time we hit the course the clouds had cleared and the sun had come out.

The course started out on on top of a hill and ran down through some typical New England grouse cover, ending at a stream in a valley below. Because this was a spring trial, the trial was run on released quail rather than on wild birds. A lot of cover dog guys hate these “quail trials.” Once you see how the birds act, you understand why.

When pointed, they do not act like wild birds. Instead of holding tight, or moving away from a dog, a released quail will walk in front of dog or even head towards it. The birds are also very hard to flush and during this trial we had several instances where the handler and the judges had to chase quail through the brush before the birds would take to the air.

This type of commotion really tests a dog. In the Shooting Dog stakes, a dog must remain perfectly staunch through the flush and shot (in Cover Dog Trials, a starter pistol is used to simulate gun fire -birds are not killed). In our Gun Dog stake, Puck needed to remain on point and staunch through the flush.

Fortunately, she had three solid finds and the birds behaved themselves. While they were reluctant to flush, they didn’t do anything crazy like run at Puck and strut on a log a few feet in front of her face.

When our brace came up, Puck started off with a few shallow casts to the front. This was her first trial and I think all the people confused her a bit. But after about 5 minutes, she settled into a nice forward hunting pattern, heading towards objectives and checking in on my location.

In my previous posts I mentioned Puck’s big fault - she pauses in the woods, especially when she loses track of me. That fault disappeared in this trial. Puck comes from some very solid field trial stock and I think this event brought out her genetics. Puck ran hard throughout the brace and the longer we ran, the bolder she performed. With a high head and a cracking tale, she pressed ahead and had three solid finds. She was staunch on all of them, and on one she relocated a bird after an unproducive point (one where a birds is not produced).

Overall, Puck had a great run. Luck was on our side that Sunday morning, and like I said, I’m real proud of my little girl.

Here’s a pic of all the dogs that placed in the Gun Dog stake, courtesy of Chris Mathan @ the Sportsman’s Cabinet:

Well, it’s Sunday night and I’m back in Boston. I was up in Maine over the weekend running Puck around Portland.

The Mid Coast Maine Field Trial is less than a week away. I’m going to run Puck in the Gun Dog Stake on Sunday morning. I’m pretty excited. This is going to be out first field trial.

Spring is starting to show itself in my covers (so are a lot of ticks, too). Here’s one of my spots. You can see how this is a clearcut. I think there used to be white pines in here. Now there are a lot of poplars, plus some poplars and apple trees:

Puck had two nice solid points, both on woodcock. Here’s one of them:

Not bad. Her tail’s a bit low, but she standing up nice and sure.

On this point she was more intense:

Both of these birds were about 1o yards away from her, so I wonder if the scent was weak. On both of these both she was steady to wing and shot (I carry a blank-firing starter pistol with me that I fire on the flush), and she ran hard the full time we were in the field.

We came across two grouse while we were out. I think one of them flushed wild on her, or maybe she bumped it. I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt and say it flushed wild. I heard the bird go and then she stopped. This is how I found her:

In these photos you can see all the gear I have on her. I run Puck with a Tracker Radio Collar, a Dogtra Track & Train Collar, and, on most occasions, a Swiss-style bell.

But on this trip, I forget the bell. This meant I had to turn her beeper collar on to keep track of her (normally, I only use the locate/beep function when the cover is real thick). I HATE beeper collars - using one makes me feel like I’m following a dump truck. I find a clanging bell to be much more pleasant. To me, it’s part of the soundtrack of upland hunting.

I wonder how beeper collars affect birds, too. I know people will disagree with me about this, but I swear it drives birds off. I think it spooks birds because it pauses between beeps and then switches to different pattern when a dog points.

A bell rings on a consistent pattern and then stops. This startles a bird and forces it to freeze. Because it does not know where the dog is, it does not want to move or flush and give away its position. That’s my theory, anyway.

Next week I’ll be running Puck in her first field trial. She’ll be wearing a bell then (no beeper/shock collar). I hope my theory works out and things go well.

I’ve been trying to find some information about Field Trials for some time now. The rules and information about these events are not easy to come by.

Fortunately, a few friends pointed me to some info. Here’s what they showed I me. This info cleared up some of the questions I had about. I hope it does the same for you. If you know of any more resources, please send them my way: gregg@dogsanddoubles.com.

Organizations that support Field Trials:

Official website for the American Field Trial Clubs of America (AFTCA)
Rules, requirements and information:

AFTCA By Laws and Running Rules(pdf)

Minimum Requirements for Field Trials for all Pointing Dog Breeds (pdf)

Guidelines for Field Trials (pdf)

William Harnden Foster — Top Coverdog of the Year Award site

Information for New Trialers — from Harnden Foster Award site

Magazines about trialing:

American Field Sporting Dog & Field Trial News

Field Trial Magazine
Here’s my English Pointer Puck pointing a grouse:

Interested in fine shotguns? Then beware. The three books I’m about to share with you are the ones that started my obsession with double guns. Read them at your own risk; if you find yourself spending all your free nights and weekend on the hunt for your next dream gun, don’t say you weren’t warned

Shotguns and Shooting by Michael McIntosh is first.

This compilation of magazine articles by Mr. McIntosh is in two parts: Shotguns–Love, Lore, and Legend and Shooting–Craft, Cartridges, and Controversies.

Overall, it’s a wonderful introduction to double-bbl shotguns and how to shoot them. The author’s style mixes a lot of information with a little romance and some fine story telling skills. The result is informative, entertaining, and a pleasure to read. When you’re done with it, you’ll feel like you’ve been hanging around with a friend who knows a lot about nice guns.

Next is More Shotguns and Shooting, also by Michael McIntosh.

This book picks up where Shotguns and Shooting left off. It’s in three sections: Shotguns–More Love, Lore, and Legend, Shooting–More Craft, Cartridges, and Controversies, and Odds & Ends.

This book has some classic stories in it, including Back to the Future, a story of a certain Purdey, and Being Shot, a story that will convince you to wear shooting glasses whenever you’re in the field.

Michael McIntosh has a number of other excellent books. I recommend all of them, including Best Guns, and a book he co-wrote with ex-Purdey Stocker David Trevallion called Shotgun Technicana.

The last book on my list of the essential threes is Good Guns Again by Stephen Bodio. This editorial review of the book does a good job of summing it up:

“Steve covers the world of good guns, from American classic shotguns to the English and Spanish gun makers. He discusses damascus barrels, how to buy a customized gun, how to buy an affordable double for $3,500 or under, big bore rifles, Gun-Trader Blues, and much more.

This is Bodio at his finest, the unleashed, unfettered gun fanatic, haunting the gun shops, evaluating, and offering a unique insight into the world of sporting firearms.”

When you’re done with it, you’ll probably find yourself haunting guns shops, too, looking for your next dream gun.