I went to a gun show this past weekend with a friend. He was looking for his first gun, wanted a classic SxS shotgun; one with history, good looks, and style. We looked at a bunch and finally found the Rem 1900. It's beautiful. Tight, stock is very good, barrels are clean and shiny. We got a chance to test the triggers with some snap caps: clean and crisp.
I looked it over, no markings or pitting on the barrels, rib is fine. The tag was marked "Damascus". My knowledge of 110+ year old gunsmithing is (was) lacking. I didn't know what exactly it meant. My friend wanted a gun to hunt with, shoot trap with, etc. We get home and start looking into the history of the gun.... My heart sank. He just bought a gun that many say on various web forums he should hang on the wall.
So, I come here pleading for a direction. He loves the gun, but wants to be safe about using it (if that's what he can do. I've read that we should find a good "doublegun" smith so they can check it out. He's in Maryland - any recommendations on where to go? I've read about RST Shotshells and using them for older guns, but I know it should be checked before any shooting.
Here are the details:
Model 1900 12 Gauge
Serial 331xxx (working off memory, but I'm certain it was 33xxxx)
Barrels marked LKD - 28"
Stamped 44 and 42 on the barrel lug
I'll try to get some pictures soon. This forum looks to be THE resource for these guns and I really appreciate any/all help you're willing to provide.
Remington Model 1900s are a simplified, cheaper, version of the Model 1894, built on the same patents -- No. 528,507 and No. 528,508 both granted Oct. 30, 1894. The Model 1900s were all K-Grades, with E added to the designation if the gun had ejectors and D if it had Damascus barrels -- K-, KE-, KD-, or KED-Grades. The K- and KE-Grades had Remington Steel barrels. The Model 1900s had a snap-on/off forearm and their serial numbers were in the 300,000 range, often preceded with a stock letter Q.
You need to check out Charles G. Semmer's book Remington Double Shotguns. It is available from the author 7885 Cyd Drive, Denver, CO 80221, for $60 plus $5 shipping and handling. It is invaluable if you are going to shoot, invest, collect or play in the Remington double gun field. Remington supplied a number of different pattern Damascus barrels on these old doubles. A picture of their salesman’s sample of the various styles of Damascus available is shown on page 275 of Semmer's book.
Remington Arms Co. stamped the actual pellet counts of their test patterns on the rear barrel lug of their Model 1889 hammer doubles and their Model 1894 and 1900 hammerless doubles. If the number is three digits, that is the count, if the number is two digits a leading 3 is implied. From surviving hang-tags we know the standard load they used to target 12-gauge guns was 1 1/4 ounces of #8 going 511 pellets to the load. My 12-gauge KE-Grade Model 1900 is stamped 33 on the left and 24 on the right. That would be 333/511 = 65% left and 324/511 = 64% right, or about improved modified in both barrels. The chokes measure .027" in both barrels of that gun.
By the end of the first decade of the 20th Century, Remington saw that the future laid with their John M. Browning designed Remington Autoloading Gun (later known as the Model 11) and their John D. Pedersen designed Remington Repeating Shotgun (later known as the Model 10). So, they concluded a deal with Norvell-Shapleigh Hardware Co. of St Louis, for their entire inventory of break-action shotguns in inventory and in process, on February 3, 1910. There must have been a lot of guns involved, because the records show 3206 Model 1894s, and 16435 Model 1900s shipped in 1910. The 1909 Remington Arms Co. catalogue was the last one to include the doubles, and there was a version of the 1909 catalogue that only had the Remington Autoloading Shotgun, the Remington Repeating Shotgun, and the Autoloading Repeating Rifle.
I don't think anyone left alive knows what those codes on the bottom of the barrels of Remington Arms Co. doubles really mean. No one, including Charles Semmer who wrote the book Remington Double Shotguns, has really decoded those letters and hashmarks down the barrel tube bottoms.
While no one can tell you over the internet if a gun is safe to shoot and with what ammunition, there are thousand of damascus barrel guns in regular use. There are generations of us who believe those Damascus barrel warnings on shotshell boxes were an attempt by the manufactures, begun during the Great Depression, to sell new guns. My Father's AE-Grade Remington, made in 1896, digested many, many, cases of Super-X and Federal Hi-Power shells from when he got it in 1945 to when he quit hunting after the 1987/8 season. The above said, I strongly recommend having any old double gun inspected by a qualified double gun smith, not Joe S**t the 870 parts replacer down on the corner, before using with any ammunition.
Go to any Vintagers event and you will see many Damascus barrel guns being used. Read Sherman Bell's series "Finding Out For Myself" in The Double Gun Journal and see what pressures it took to blow up old junker doubles with both Damascus and steel barrels. The conclusions were that in order to blow a barrel with anything near a normal shell, the culprit was a bore obstruction. While most American makers quit Twist and Damascus barrels when The Great War dried up the supply of rough tubes from England, Belgium and France, Parker Bros. continued to offer Damascus ane Bernard barrels into the late 1920s. There exists at least one fully optioned Bernard barrel 12-gauge Parker Bros. double trap gun with vent rib, beavertail forearm, ejectors and single selective trigger. The British proof houses will still prove Damascus barrel guns, and at least James Purdey & Sons and W.W. Greener have recently built new Damascus barrel guns.
From the very first Remington Arms Co. catalogue introducing the Remington Hammerless Double Barrel Shotgun, October 1894, they state "The Remington Guns, both hammer and hammerless, are especially adapted to all nitro powders, and every gun is thoroughly proved, tested and targetted, before leaving the armory."
My heart sank. He just bought a gun that many say on various web forums he should hang on the wall. 