[6_gunner]

I recently purchased single shot 12 ga from a hawk shop. It says "Paragon" on one side of the receiver and "Model W. S." on the other side. I'm afraid I can't remember the serial number. I'm curious about its age. Can anybody tell me the approximate production run of that model?

[Ron James]

Well, don't know because I don't know who made it. Paragon was and is a very popular name. Baker Arms co. made a Parogon until 1919, Crescent arms Co. made one using Bakers tooling until 1924, Stevens Arms Co. made a single shot Parogon, and last but not least Hopkins and Allen made a Paragon . For information purposes only Rottweil makes a modern Paragon. So 6-gunner you can see the problems. However if the Serial number starts with A it was made by Crescent. If it was made by any of those above, there are no records on just when and how many were made. Perhaps someone else has more information but with out the shotgun in my hot little hands I wont even make a WAG of who the manufacturer was. Sorry about that. One thing you can do is go to the Numrich site and pull up as many suspects as you can and compare.

[Jim K]

I think there was also a Spanish maker using that name. Foreign guns can almost always be detected by looking for proof marks.

Unless you can definitely prove otherwise, I would assume the possibility of Damascus barrels and would strongly recommend you not fire the gun.

Jim