In order to participate in the GunBroker Member forums, you must be logged in with your GunBroker.com account. Click the sign-in button at the top right of the forums page to get connected.

Remington SxS info

claysclays Member Posts: 1,913 ✭✭✭✭
edited August 2003 in Ask the Experts
Gentlmen, I was given my grandfather's shotgun many years ago and just recently took it out of the safe to clean & inspect it. I don't know too much about these older model guns so I am going to the experts for information. I was told that he purchased it new around the turn of the century (1900), @ a hardware store in Chatt, Tn, to duck & goose hunt on the Tn river. Stories were that he not only fed the family but also provided grandma lots of feathers for pillows. The gun is a 16ga, remington double barrel (28" length). It appears to have engraving on the receiver and up on to the chambers on the barrels. It has double triggers & auto ejectors. There is a solid matt rib running the full length of the barrels. The stock & forearm are checkered but mostly worn smooth. A rubber recoil pad seems to have been professionally added. The serial # is 158784 & is on all parts of the gun, even stamped into the wood of the forearm. Letters DE stamped into bottom of barrels, along with pat. date: October 30, 1894. Condition of gun is very tight and certainly safe to shoot, by the way these are not damascus barrels. Not much if any blueing left. Main Question? Am considering haveing gun professionally restored, or should I leave as is? Thanking you in advance.
Bob

Comments

  • 2520wcf2520wcf Member Posts: 123 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Since you don't mention hammers, this must be either an 1894 or a 1900, but I think you need more description to tell the double gun wizards which. I may be mistaken, but usually only the lowest grade Remington doubles had fluid steel barrels and this doesn't sound like a field grade gun (engraving and ejectors)to me. Special order? Double gun experts?

    BTW unless the chambers have been lengthened, this 16 is almost certainly short-chambered for the old ctgs--does it KICK and CRACK?

    What a cool thing to inherit!
  • claysclays Member Posts: 1,913 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Sorry I forgot to mention it does not have exposed hammers. Your mention of KICK & CRACK? , not sure what you mean, but if you are referring to when it is fired, I do not know as I have not shot it.
  • 101AIRBORNE101AIRBORNE Member Posts: 1,252 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    clays,
    Sounds like a Model 1894 in "D" grade. "A" being the lowest grade and
    "E" being possibly the highest grade. Definitely a high grade.
    Restoration is expensive but it is your gun and you may do what you wish. My suggestion is to clean and oil the arm. Cherish the memories
    of your grandfather. He obviously used the gun a great deal. Take it to a real smith and have it checked out for chamber length. If given a clean bill of health-shoot it with reduced loads. A gun can only be original once. Enjoy and best of luck. 101
    I have not heard Kick and Crack either and have collected Parkers for
    over 35 years.
  • nordnord Member Posts: 6,106
    edited November -1
    Give Mr. Remington a call in Ilion, NY. (Area 315). Nice folks that will be happy to clear up what model and grade.

    Then... If your heart and pocketbook are set on a restoration, have the gun sent to the Remington custom shop. Your gun will be reworked in the same building where it was built 100 years ago. The men there will know (or know of, or be related to) the craftsman who constructed your gun. I know - I grew up not 15 miles from Ilion and I know many folks who work there.

    Have the gun restored by a local smith and the value will be destroyed in the opinion of many collectors. Done by Remington, though, and properly documented... I think you'll have a small treasure. That doesn't mean that the gun will be worth more than it is right now to a collector. Rather, it means that the gun will be in new condition and have a family history that's beyond monetary value. Further, it will be ready to serve your family for another 100 years at least.

    If you can afford what the restoration will cost, think what it might mean to a great grandchild in 2075. What a great connection to the past. Almost nothing else will last over such a span of time.

    Normally I'd be against what I've just shared because of the economics, but here's a case where I think whatever is spent might be well justified over the next 100 years. I've done the same to two of my L.C. Smith's. They go to my two son's so value isn't of importance and each gun brings me great pleasure just to look at. That's a real bargain in this world!

    What a pleasure to comment on a nice gun that's valued by the family that owns it. How wonderful to be at least considering the conservation of the piece. I wish you and your family all the best.

    Nord
  • claysclays Member Posts: 1,913 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Mr. Nord, thank you for such an excellent & informative response. Together with Mr. 101airbone's comments you both have convinced me to leave the gun in it's original state. It is not the expense of a restoration that deters me as you have brought to my attention I would be destroying all of the honestly aquired wear to this gun, which is what the memories are made from. My grandfather did not have much money to spend as he worked for the railroad mail system, so when he bought something it was an investment for survival. A friend just looked at the gun & cannot believe this grade of gun was used so much for hunting. He showed me a collectors Blue Book that has this gun listed and according to the serial # it is a high grade factory engraved DE model and considered rare in 16 gage. This gun will remain in the family and I will pass it on to my son whose wife is expecting my first grandchild, Who knows, it might be a boy.
  • PythonPython Member Posts: 267 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Clays;
    I read the posts before posting this. As you have discovered,You're Remington is a rare DE in 16 Ga. Model is either 1894 or 1896, This should appear on the bottom of the barrels, just behind the forearm lug. Most importantly, it was you're Gramdfathers,as such, priceless. The only other of this series rarer than your's is the same Model and Grade in 28 Ga. It is not as odd as one would think for such a gun to be taken afield. In those days, Men would buy the best grade they could manage. The thinking being, and rightly so, The better grade guns would last a life time, without problems. In the case of doubles, like this one, the barrels were hand regulated to shoot very close to the same point of aim and throw consistant overlapping patterns. It was time consuming and expensive,to get such a gun in todays world would cost several thousand dollars. Your's is a rare Remington, to be sure. Think what all this will mean to you're grandsons.

    Kill all the lawyers and the world will be much better for it.
Sign In or Register to comment.