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Joined: 06 Dec 2006 Posts: 1 Location: SC

I was given a Crescent Certified Crescent-Davis double trigger SxS with a 17 inside a circle in front of the trigger guard. Does anyone have any info on this gun such as approximate age, etc. Also, can this be used for hunting and if so what kind of loads are safe/unsafe, hi/low brass, etc.? I will be going to the local gun show this weekend and will be looking for loads that are recommended. Thanks

Welcome-the following infro has been accumulated from threads over on DoubleGunBBS:
per http://www.briley.com/articles/grampas_shotgun.html Crescent Fire Arms of Norwalk, Conn and H.&mp;D. Folsom of NY merged with N.R.Davis around 1900 becoming Crescent-Davis.
N.R. Davis of Assonet, Mass., started in the 1850's manufacturing muzzleloaders and one of America's earliest breech-loading doubles, a sliding breech pin-fire. By WW-I time the Warner Arms Corp had bought into N.R. Davis and in 1917 bought out the Davis family and by 1919 moved the entire assets of N. R. Davis to Norwich, Conn. They continued to make doubles under the N.R. Davis name and the hammerless models were named "MAXIM," "AJAX," and "EXPERT." Eventually Savage acquired Davis-Warner and about the same time Crescent Arms Company. They then advertised a line of Crescent-Davis guns in the back of their Stevens wholesale price list, even behind the "cheaper than Stevens" Springfield line, through the late 1930's and early 40's.
There was a good article on the Crescent in Shooting Sportsman Sept/Oct 2001.

Hard to tell if your gun was an early or late Crescent-Davis and you might check the Blue Book also.
Either way, it was designed as an utility hunter's gun and could be 100 yrs old and certainly deserves a good check and clean by a doublegun specialty smith-what part of the country are you and we could suggest some names. Be sure the smith measures the chokes (likely to be tight) and chamber as it may well be 2 9/16" rather than 2 3/4"
Certainly you should limit the gun to low pressure loads. Prior to WW-I, the standard 16-gauge load, put up in a 2 9/16 inch case, was 2 1/4 drams equiv. and 7/8 ounce of shot. The heaviest 16-gauge loads listed were 2 3/4 drams equiv. and 1 ounce of shot.

Polywad 'Vintager' http://www.polywad-shotgun-shells.com 800-998-0669
Eley subsonic/low recoil http://eleyshotshells.com 512-821-9953
ARMUSA 'Vintage' http://www.armusa-performance.com 281-381-7773
Kent http://www.firearmservice.com 512-821-9953
RST http://www.rstshells.com 570-553-1651
WestleyRichards http://www.westleyrichards.com/gun/ammo_shot.php

Hope this is helpful but you might post on DoubleGunBBS also
http://doublegunshop.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=postlist&Board=1&page=1&PHPSESSID=44abf2e256255f449a3c383a7c0f654b

Saw you're from SC. Recently this fella was highly recomended on another Forum:
Jim Kelly Darlington Gun Works Inc
516 S Governor Williams Hwy
Darlington, SC (843) 393-3931