Re: 1923 12ga Field Featherweight 2 barrel set Archived Message
Posted by John Liles on May 17, 2017, 4:24 pm, in reply to "1923 12ga Field Featherweight 2 barrel set"
Hello Ron, and Welcome!
There are no hard and fast rules wen it comes to two barrel sets. Here's what we know from the production Records book by Dr. Jim Stubbendieck.
Of 127255 Field Grade guns produced between 1912 & 1950 (all of them!) 80 guns were ordered as a two barrel set.
Here's the rub...Only guns that were originally ordered as a two barrel set are designated as such in the records. Untold numbers of guns were sent back to the factory for a second barrel set, but those transactions were not recorded and referenced in the original record for the gun. Since you have a second numbered fore-end, chances are that the work was factory implemented, but the jeweling work was likely not performed by the factory. Jeweling was usually confined to higher grade guns, and almost always on the lock parts of the Pigeon Grade, supposedly to speed up the lock time for Pigeon Shooters.
In any event, your gun will likely not letter as a two barrel set, but it might. It would definitely increase the value if it did. Even without the letter, the gun sounds like it is choked great, & should command good money for a Field Grade.
Know that there are several gunsmiths out there today that will happily fit a second stray barrel set to a gun, complete with matching serial numbers. (after welding over the original number, and hiding that work with Jeweling) Probably not the case with yours, but you never know!
No matter what, sounds like you have a great Elsie, Congratulations!
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