Posted by George Mitchell on March 14, 2023, 2:30 pm
I have a 16g feather weight, serial number puts its date of manufacture probably in 1934. I bought sometime in the 1990's at an Army Navy store. Its in pretty good shape. It looks all original except for the recoil pad. Wood is dark but not scratched. Still have faint case hardening on the action and fainter on the sidelocks. Barrels are have no pitting. No rust or corrosion on the gun. I hunted some quail with it when I first acquired it, but it doesn't fit well, the LOP is at least an inch short for me.
For no apparent reason I dub it out of the safe this week and decide I would have it restored and maybe restocked to fit me.
The I looked on the Turnbull sight and they have a similar 16g feather weight, within a few hindered on the serial number in much worse shape for sale for almost 10x what I paid back when.
Now I'm thinking I should just keep it original and shoot it, maybe put a boot on it to lengthen the LOP.
So, no interest in selling, but I'm cooling off on the thought of restoring it and I'm just looking for another opinion on what's best for the gun for its next hundred years. And I want to shoot it more.
I know restoration would probably exceed the value of the gun, and that's not a concern or problem.
It may have the short chamber but the Remington Game loads and the Aguila and Fiocchi shells all measure 2 5/8 on the empty hulls and shoot fine in my short chamber guns. I cut all my other 16ga hulls to the same length for simplicity
