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Joined: 17 Dec 2015 Posts: 64 Location: Northern WI

I knew my dad had this H&R single shot lying around and in fact it is the gun I used as a kid hopelessly missing many grouse and pheasants with it. Last weekend we were working pigeons with our young dogs and just on a whim he pulled it out to reward his lab pup and to work on her retrieve of real birds. Of course I asked him the details behind how he got it, which led to a long story about old hunting buddies and family. When he was in his early teens, his great uncle responded to a newspaper ad of a private party selling various shotguns down in Horicon, WI. My dad did some odd jobs for him and he ended up giving him this gun. This led to more stories of my dad in his youth racing to finish milking cows in the morning so he could take off hunting. He'd walk one side of the tag alder creek bottom going west until around noon so the sun would be at his back, then would stop, eat his lunch and take a nap in the shade. Once the sun had lowered a bit, he'd walk the other side of the creek going east back to the farm. He said he didn't hit many grouse in the air, but his border collie, Ritzie, got pretty good at barking at treed grouse and as a teen in the 1960's he didn't pass up many chances at a treed bird. These hunts were his escape from a farm house where he was the oldest boy of 9 kids.

He knows I've been searching for a shooter quality vintage SxS 16 and suggested I should maybe take this one and keep it in my safe as he hadn't shot it for over 10 years. I now realize it wasn't by chance he grabbed it Smile

Long story short, it has a lot of value to me personally, not monetarily, and I know this one isn't fancy, but I am curious about details of the manufacture date so as to share the details with my dad. Model 1908 Serial #755937, also are there any markings to indicate the choke?

Please chime in if anyone has similar stories of simple guns making valuable memories.

Ted

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*Last edited by skeettx on Wed Jul 13, 2016 2:43 pm; edited 1 time in total*

http://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=427484

I do NOT have this book

http://www.gunshowbooks.com/cgi-bin/webc.exe/st_prod.html?p_prodid=GS44305

http://bluebookofgunvalues.com/Info/PDF/Firearm/Serialize.pdf

H&R SINGLE BARREL SHOTGUNS
The following is a years of production listing for all Main
Line single barrel shotguns produced by Harrington &
Richardson with a cross reference to Deluxe and Youth
variations.

ModeL dates Years MFg.
1900 1901-1916 15 Years
1905 (Small Frame) 1906-1915 10 Years
1908 1909-1930 32 Years
1915 (Small Frame) 1916-1930 15 Years
No. 5 1931-1942 12 Years
No. 8 1931-1942 12 Years
48 (First use of the TOPPER name) 1943-1956 14 Years
and lots more Smile

Member Joined: 19 Jan 2008 Posts: 680 Location: MAINE

I enjoyed your story . Reminds me of my days with my first gun , an old Savage single shot 16 gauge , full choke . I too missed many grouse with that gun . My Dad gave me that gun so it will never be sold . Thanks for sharing .

*Last edited by skeettx on Wed Jul 13, 2016 4:41 pm; edited 1 time in total*

Mine is a Savage 24 with the old side selector
22/410 Wood stock, Never to be sold

Mike

Joined: 26 Apr 2010 Posts: 3178 Location: NCWa

Member Joined: 26 Jun 2005 Posts: 376 Location: North ID.

Mine was a Winchester model 37, 16 ga I shared with my brother.

I missed grouse with it, but also managed to bag a few. I remember vividly one waterfowl shoot with my dad, Thanksgiving morning, when I was around 16 years old.

We set up the decoys on a point that jutted out into the lake. Nothing was flying initially and about 8:30 am or so, I agreed with my dad, that if no action we would pick up in about 1/2 hr.

About 15 minutes before the agreed upon pick up time, the northern mallards started decoying in from doubles upwards to 15-20 birds at a time. I couldn't keep the model 37 loaded fast enough and my dad was jamming shells into his Browning auto 12 ga at a fast clip as well. Not that it really mattered in my case. becauseI think I only downed one bird out of the 16 bird limit we shot!

Member Joined: 19 Jan 2008 Posts: 680 Location: MAINE

Great story , great memory . Atta boy Dear old Dad !

Joined: 03 Feb 2008 Posts: 830 Location: Adirondak Mtns

My first shot gun was a mod 37 win my mom got with merchant trading stamps she got at the supermarket. A great gun but it was a 12. The first 16 was a family hand me down Iver Johnson Champion. Wish I still had it. Good memories.