Single Barrel Shotguns

Chris3755 wrote:"I saw first hand that my Great Grandfather  had at least three old single barrel 12 gauge shotguns when I was growing up, and the neighboring farmers all had some too. My Great Grandfather had handguns too but they were not Colts, they were small Iver Johnson or H&R 32's".

My Grandpa too. I still have his 16 gauge single barrel, his twelve gauge, and three top break 32's.  What is really cool is I found the last of grandpas 32's only a couple years ago. He hid it in the basement rafters.

 barrel-bung-gun-a-new-basement-door

(fixed broken link--AL)

Cant get the link for the story from my wife's web site to open, but you can paste it in.

I have other shotguns, but still keep single shots handy. As far as home defense goes, most social shotgun encounters end in one shot fired anyway.

My Grandmother had several 32 handguns that she passed on to me before she passed away, but the one her dad had carried wasn't found until years later when my Aunt was going through some old boxes that my Grandmother had stored away.  It was an H&R 32 Long and my Aunt gave it on to me since she knew my Grandmother would have wanted it that way. Chris

 

I've had a few single barrel shotguns. One was this early Model 37 Winchester red letter in 20 gauge. This was far from a cheap shotgun and is a collectors item today. I killed quite a few grouse with the darn thing, I sold it when I needed to pay some bills, but I'm thinking of pestering the owner for it again to try and buy it back.
 

 
I like single shots, I always have. You can do so much with them, and again, you learn to aim because one is all you have. I picked up a new Savage-Stevens .22 lr Favorite for my son, he just has a few years to grow into it. Then there is my little H & R .22 Hornet that I have redone. Single shots are great for hunting, just most people don't seem to realize what you can do with them.


 

Just read the story from the link. Neat! Chris

Thanks Chris!

David LaPell-I like guns without a  lot of moving parts.  Less to go wrong.  That little Stevens is pretty! I had an original that was one of  my dad's.  I passed it on to a nephew when he died, which I regret in my less charitable moments. 

For me, my brother and at least one of my hunting partners was a single. My .308 is a single as well, (H&R SB Ultra Hunter), not really a shotgun, but...

My first shotgun was sort of a singe shot. It was  also my second rifle: a Savage 24f in 20 gauge over 22 mag.  The most practical longarm I ever owned and I still have it. Too bad they are no longer made. 

Al-Many thanks for fixing my broken link!  

It must be a plot around here to drag the old stories out of me. This topic hit square in the middle of one.
 
I was in junior high school along about 1972 and I was starting to get "gun fever" back then. We shared a locker in the hall with another  student assigned to us by some unseen power. My "locker partner" I will refer to as "Jimmy". (I still remember his full name BTW). He was a nice enough guy but if they held an "Intelligence Olympics" he wouldn't qualify in the Power Lifting category, if you get my drift. Well Jimmy and I got to discussing guns one day and he informed me that he had an old 16 ga single shot, shotgun that his Dad had said he could sell because it kicked Jimmy around too much. I didn't think that was as odd then as it might sound to a young person today. I told him I might be interested and could ride my bike over to his place over the weekend and have a gander at the thing.
 
That night I talked it over with my Dad, sort of, kinda. He was none too keen on the odd gauge but allowed as how I had the money save up on my own it was my business. He didn't think that Jimmy's asking price of $15 was too high. So I made plans to go over that weekend. This was probably a Tuesday. I lived about a mile and a half from the school and rode my bike to and from every day. As was my typical pattern I arrived at the school in "just in the nick of time". I would make my Social Studies  class with about two minutes to spare, so I thought.  I opened the locker and saw that Jimmy's coat was inside, also in side was a paper shopping bag with the butt and barrel of disassembled shotgun peeking out. Further inspection revealed the fore end and a box of shells in the bag. Now, bear in mind, things were more "relaxed" in those days, but I was certain this had to be a violation of some sort of rule, after all, the principal had made a strong point of banning squirtguns just a few days before. I tossed my coat in and suddenly had difficulty closing the locker door. I discovered that the door was in the firm hand of my first period teacher. He had seen the gun parts when I opened the door and he recognized them. A conversation ensued.
 
"What is THAT doing in your locker?" he asked, pointing at the bag.
 
Thinking myself clever I replied , " I knew I'd get caught, but I had to try."
 
"Try what?"
 
"Well, you remember last week, the Principal banned squirtguns?"
 
"Go on."
 
"Well I thought nobody would think to look in the hollowed out butt of a shotgun, for a squirt gun if there was a locker  inspection."
 
Surprisingly he didn't buy that story, I was forced to fall back on the truth. Fortunately he had seen me come into the building sans bag and when I told him who my locker partner was, he rolled his eyes and spoke,
 
"Well, are you going to buy it?"
 
"I guess so"
 
"Then, you take it right now, get on your bike and get it home and come back as fast as you can."
 
That was an order I could follow,  and did. Mom was at her business that day so I slipped the bag in my closet (After taking a quick but more thurough look at the contents) and grabbed the cash from my desk. I got to school and later paid Jimmy and the deal was done.
 
That night my father called Jimmy's dad and made sure the deal was copacetic with him and the following day my Dad called the teacher to assure him all was right in the world.
 
That next summer the gun paid for itself. We were not "bird hunters" but a shotgun can be so useful. We were building a house at the time on our land and a particular woodpecker was attempting to bore a hole throught the sheathing, apparently to get at the insulation for nest building. Ay least that is what we figured when we found some in his beak after I "gauged" him. That gun accounted for a mole that was tearing up Mom's flower bed and in the fall dumped a squirrel that was stealing walnuts and making a nuisance of himself rolling them down the roof to lodge in the gutter for later transport.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Countrygun, nothing wrong with telling old stories, I do it all the time. Chris