Oldest Shotgun you Own

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My oldest shotguns are an L C Smith damascus 10 gauge....not sure of it's birthday. The next one is a Parker DH grade N series from 1906. It's my go to bird gun. I load black powder substitutes in those boobie pink shells I find everywhere.
 
I have a 12 gauge from my grandfather and it is a W.P. Wonder. From what I can tell in my research, if the internet is accurate, that it was made in the late 1890's and wp wonder was a brand of laundry detergent. If you bought 25 boxes of laundry detergent they sent you a free shotgun. I don't know the historical accuracy of the above statement, but that's all I could find on it. All I know is the thing kicks like a Kentucky mule
 

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Jbird45 said:
I have a 12 gauge from my grandfather and it is a W.P. Wonder. From what I can tell in my research, if the internet is accurate, that it was made in the late 1890's and wp wonder was a brand of laundry detergent. If you bought 25 boxes of laundry detergent they sent you a free shotgun. I don't know the historical accuracy of the above statement, but that's all I could find on it. All I know is the thing kicks like a Kentucky mule
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Interesting......and accurate re: the Kentucky mule part, at least. :rofl:
When I was a teenager, went duck hunting with two buddies using a Stevens single shot 12 ga. that looked just like that. I had two boxes of shells and shot most of them. I fired the first shot of the day and got a duck; also the last shot of the day with same results. Should stop there, but in the interest of full disclosure, didn't drop a feather in between. Was black and blue for a week!

Regards,
hps
 
hps1 said:
Nice old hammer gun.

My father inherited this old Remington from his uncle. He hunted waterfowl with it in the 40's before finding out it had damascus barrels and retired it. It is a fine old gun built on the LC Smith pattern, I'm told and has split ejectors. In the 50's I bought 24 all brass shotgun shells, loaded them with black powder and shot it for a while, but with only 24 cases, tired of it and it sits right beside the old percussion. Have never found a shotgun that fit me like this one.
View attachment 833923
Forgot to mention, I shot my first duck with this gun when I was 8 years old.

Regards,
hps
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My great grandpa left me his L.C.Smith hammer gun. It has fluid steel barrels.
It shoots very even and tight patterns.

































C.
 
vizslas1 said:
My great grandpa left me his L.C.Smith hammer gun. It has fluid steel barrels.
It shoots very even and tight patterns.
Click to expand...

I did a little reading to refresh my memory and found out it was Parker that Remington bought rights to, not L C Smith as I stated before.

Regards,
hps
 
I like to look at old shotguns, but don't want to own...or much less...shoot one! Most old doubles have way too much drop and punch the cheek. They're often too short for me and steel buttplates don't give me a thrill. Damascus is the killer fault, though. However, I'm very glad that some people love and care for them!!!
 
It's kinda interesting about Damascus barrels, some fellows a while back did some testing and found them to be every bit as strong as fluid steel barrels from the same era. I know the ammo maker's did their best to turn people off to the idea of Damascus steel barrels.
 
The main issues with Damascus barrels came from black powder, which is very corrosive; add in minimal cleaning, a little rust here and there, little to no heat treating and modern pressure loads and you MIGHT have a kaboom scenario. I said MIGHT because if well taken care of, Damascus barrels, even old ones, can be safe to shoot
 
I shoot my Damascus Parker quite a bit, it's my favorite quail gun. I also have an old Stevens 16 gauge that's Damascus. Haven't shot it much.
 
Time for me to make a better contribution to this thread than my previous non-functioning wall hanger topic. Recently picked up an Iver Johnson Hercules Grade 12 ga. double in a two gun purchase. Wanted one of these for years, as, since age 17, I've had a pre - WW2 Iver Johnson Champion 16 ga. single barrel break open that was one of their budget guns. I knew the Hercules Grade was one of their better, higher price offerings but never had the opportunity to see one in person. In 1940 a Hercules Grade double cost approximately 4 times the price of a single barrel Champion according to my reprint of the 1940 Shooters Bible. This one I'd rate as pretty decent, used but not abused, and seems to work well. I have some Hercules Grade serial number information that puts this one as a specimen of the 1925 production run. So this one has now become my oldest functional shotgun. Planning on it only seeing some occasional, light use. So far I'm liking it. IMG_6189.JPG IMG_6194.JPG
 
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