An Old Gun

The title of this post is not in any way metaphorical. A few months back Harry and I made the trip to New Jersey to visit family and celebrate the March birthdays. It was a pleasant enough time and at the birthday party Uncle Steve gave me a heads up. "I have three shotguns in my trunk." I thought maybe he needed a driver for a heist but he was actually just asking if I might want one or more of them. His little collection included a pump, and two side by side double barrels.

As it is I already have a nice reliable Remington 870 so I was not really looking for another practical firearm. However, the doubles intrigued me. One was a rather rusty "Vulcan Arms" knockoff with a shattered stock and a bent barrel. I took it but I'm not sure if I will ever get around to doing anything with it. The other gun was a Remington 1900 that originally belonged to Great Grandfather Michael Hart. Well actually, it originally belonged a priest-friend who, according to family lore, inadvertently shot my great granddad in the buttocks in a strange synthesis of Forrest Gump and Harry Whittington. Mortified, the priest gave his firearm to his victim and the gun has been in the family ever since

It showed signs of extensive use but I thought I could bring it back to a good condition. I think I was right but I guess I will leave that to others to decide. I wish I had taken some more before shots but here you can see the frame before and the whole gun after. More pictures of the refinished gun here.




The big problem I have now is that I really want to shoot it. However the pitting in the barrels concerns me and I have no desire to deal with an exploding firearm. But since I live in America, there is a solution to my problems. In this case it is a set of tubes that go in the barrels and take all of the pressure loads of the expanding gases. Behold, Briley Insert Tubes. Of course my new problem is coming up with my rationalization for why I should spend that kind of money on a hundred year old gun.