Here’s something you almost never see for sale in the U.S: A modern 8g SxS shotgun. It’s on Gunbroker.com now and the online auction ends on 2/4/2019 @ 8:30 PM.
These days, 8-gauge shotguns are mythical beasts, like Gryphons or a Hydras. But at the end of the 19th century and into the first part of the 20th, good-quality 8 gauge shotguns were common up and down the Eastern seaboard and anywhere in the US where guys hunted waterfowl. And no, they weren’t used as “market” guns. Instead, they were used to pass shoot ducks, geese, and swans at long ranges.
Unfortunately, in the 1930s the Federal Government outlawed the use of 8 gauges on migratory birds, and that killed demand for them. Today, some states allow you to use them for turkeys and predator hunting. Others state don’t allow you to hunt with them at all.
That being said, the 8 gauges have always had a following in the UK and they remain legal. This gun was made to meet that demand. Built in Spain and imported into Great Britain, it found its way over here. Now you have the chance to bring it home.
Ralph Grant Eight Bore SXS Shotgun plus Ammo 8 Ga: Ralph Grant, a retailer from Leicester, England marketed these fine Spanish made shotguns in England and the water table bears both Eibar and Birmingham proofs. Made in 1985, it features 32” barrels with 3-1/2” chambers, full chokes (fixed) and raised matted rib with mid and front beads, engraved and coin finished double bite boxlock action with bushed firing pins and automatic safety, double bordered hand checkered stocks with beavertail forend with Anson release and 14-5/8” LOP butt with ventilated recoil pad.
It comes with two sealed boxes and two loose rounds of English made Gamebore Cartridge Company, Ltd. The Mammoth Heavy Load 3-1/2” black powder 2-ounce number 5’s for a total of 22 cartridges. It is in excellent condition retaining 98% high luster blue with thinning at the muzzles and breech ends, 99% bright finished frame, perfect bores and completely sound stocks with scattered light to moderate handling marks. Lock-up is 100% on-face with zero play, the top lever comes to rest well right of center and the action works perfectly. Ya know that bird that’s laughing at you from way up there? Ruin his day.
