Great American Side By Side Shotguns

[Music] I'm glad you're here again and you know for a while I was thinking that I've neglected one area of collecting that actually was probably one of the most meaningful areas of gun collecting that I encounter in any way and it involves side-by-side shotguns so a lot of people think of a side-by-side shotgun as a very boring tool and I guess all guns are tools in one way or another anyway I was in a gun shop and I noticed a very interesting shotgun does seem to be very well made so I took a look at it had almost no bluing left on it it was a Colt and the model escapes me but it was 18 something and it was very smooth and I thought there's got to be more to learn about these side-by-side shotguns so I took an interest in early Colt shotguns then Remington shotguns and each one worked a little differently I did notice most of them still locked up quite well then of course I encountered Parker shotguns most people have heard about parker shotguns and parker trojan shotguns and they have many different grades parker ended up being purchased by remington as things go in the corporate world fox shotguns I think most gun people know about Fox shotguns there were early foxes the H Fox gun company and guy by the name of Ainsley Fox started that company with the ebb and flow of business many things changed some people think Fox shotguns are are are the best American shotguns others say it's the model 21 Winchester then there was Elsie Smith I had a few of those and Baker gun company and Lefevers because the flues model and other models anyway there are lots of others that I'm but I'm forgetting right now but what we have on the table is a Remington side-by-side it's the model 1900 and you know what happened was pretty simple like I collected and tried to get a good example of each of the best shotguns made in America and I felt when I owned that collection that I had really accomplished something and then slowly you know with friends and other collectors the guns go and maybe I'll go back into it but I'd have to say it was probably one of the most interesting things I've ever done and the Remington 1900 is an affordable wonderful box look I can't tell you how great it is hunting with side-by-side shotguns a lot of the people on the channel probably are more comfortable or more familiar with viñales and Browning's and other shotguns that are semi automatics nothing wrong with that this is the Ithaca flues great - yes I don't know if we can fill this but it has just great engraving like I said these these shotguns are many times overlooked on used gun racks only because people don't know what they're looking at and this this whole side-by-side shotgun collecting business is it's terrific it's like it's like collecting fine wine or anything that where that were the details and and knowing what you're looking at and what knowing what you're experiencing make a big difference anyway before we started filming one of the people in the studio asked what's this about this edition or segment and I said well it's it's about great American side-by-side shotguns and and then the same person asked are they are the guns on the table all-american and then I said no this one's actually a Russian side-by-side this is a Bichel I just put it on the table partly because the table is empty and partly because they happen to make an excellent side-by-side shotgun which I thought I would just show you briefly and what I probably will end up doing is going into each of the different manufacturers of classic shotguns and then in case somebody watches the show and they just have to have a side-by-side and they can't find these more collectible ones the Browning VSS made in Japan is an excellent side-by-side shotgun it has to be ver kill for and you're probably familiar with the brownie anyway that that kind of explains what's on the table but that's only part of the story today so I mentioned Parkers I mentioned foxes then savage ended up buying the H fox company and they turned out Savage Fox shotguns which really didn't have much mechanical relationship with the original Fox shotguns but they were they were good and then the Stevens 311 came out and I'm sure you're familiar with a lot of the things I'm talking about and know more about it before I go too far though I wanted to mention I was at the I think it was at the sei Safari Club show and I met this wonderful man named Michael Macintosh this this is one of his books and it's actually not the book that I'm recommending which is entitled the best shotguns ever made in America maybe I'll try to put a link somehow on the channel anyway just so wonderful man I guess he's not with us anymore but he covers in that book all of the different Americans side by side shotguns and there's no end to what's interesting about these guns when he went into it in tremendous detail in the book and I highly recommend the book and anything written by Michael Mackintosh I did Google before going to the studio and the these books are in print you can you can buy them readily so what are the some of the things that you look for just in case you watch the show and then decide to go buy something maybe you don't want it browning side by side are the obvious things the action shouldn't be loose I'd be surprised if you find a loose action mostly they're fine the top lever is supposed to be away from six o'clock so if it's over here then maybe give it another thought this is not a big deal people overreact to this I buy shotguns all the time where the lever is far over that may or may not mean that they're loose and when I say loose that the barrels rattle when you handle the gun the Elsie Smith almost is never loose no matter how much they've been fired and this old Remington I don't know where the Weaver is on this one so you see that some people would say that's a bad gun because the lever is past six o'clock but it's not a big deal to action is still yeah bank vault solid a wonderful shotgun and again I recommend the McIntosh book because he goes into things that I would have to make a 2-hour segment here that nobody's gonna watch people talk about double trigger single triggers I don't care I found I find both are completely fine I don't need to select I mean I think the easiest is the double trigger it's two barrels it's logical two triggers so I I'm not seeking out a single trigger shotguns but some people do as a feature the ejector is some people want ejectors some people want a certain type of rib when when you look at a solid rib you think there's only one type well some are swamped ribs this is not a swamp dread the swamp it goes down and and and it's hard to find them frankly so a lot of different features but you really can't go wrong any one of these is it's very interesting is a fantastic thing to collect and rewarding wonderful people involved around the world and collecting these side-by-side shotguns and probably somebody's gonna write me and say which one should they start collecting it's it's still fairly easy finding Parkers it's harder finding foxes you can find Parker reproductions which were just beautifully made copies some people say better than the originals made in Japan I believe by old incorporation and there was a complex relationship between Winchester and Olin and then Winchester ol and you can read about all that stuff but I like the Ithaca's but but they're all good you were they really are the greatest guns made in America just like Michael Macintosh says we're the greatest shotguns anyway so that's probably kind of skipping off the surface of the subject but I thought I would introduce it to you a lot of people overlook side-by-side shotguns just because for the time being and guns seem to be with not you know plastic stocks and more semi-auto machines as opposed to - you know carefully crafted hunting instruments although when they were made they as I said at the outset were tools also anyway I feel a little badly because I would like to keep talking about all these different shotguns but this introduces the subject II know you could read Michael's book excellent any Gun Digest that you can get your hands on they cover a lot of these subjects and this you don't hear about this area of collecting much right now but it's very active many people only collect side by side in shotguns and I put these books on the table because they represent the you know the British guns and I've shown you some of the British guns I have but I have to tell you there's something about American side by side shotguns that is special there's a ruggedness to them and you can see a lot of early America and just the risks that the people took to make a shotgun barring their name going up against established industries and and well it's just a remarkable story that's probably all I should say for today and we'll revisit these shotguns if I can't buy them out I'll approach some of the collectors I know and see if I can get them in the studio for a couple of days I hope that's interesting to you and something new we haven't talked about before too much and as always thanks for watching please subscribe and if you can join me on patreon that's fantastic that's about it take care out there

Channel: USOG

Views: 46,627

Rating: 4.9463086 out of 5

Keywords: how to collect side by side shotguns, lesson on american side by side shotguns, colt, remington, parker shotguns, fox shotguns, ansley fox, fox gun co., remington model 1900 side by side, boxlock shotgun, ithaca shotgun, russian side by side shotgun, baikal shotgun, browning BSS side by side, shotgun made in japan, michael McIntosh author, the best shotguns ever made in america book, what to look for when buying a shotgun, british sporting guns & rifles, firearm eduation

Id: JFsJxryJQEo

Length: 11min 36sec (696 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 18 2019