Uncle Dan’s Last Hurrah
Not many American guns are more thoughtfully designed nor better built than Uncle Dan's New Lefever. Dan Lefever had a knack, if you want to call it that, for getting crossways with business partners. In a career that spanned fifty years, he invented some of the...
Preserving Antique Shotguns
As someone who spends a lot of time working to preserve late 19th century and early 20th century double guns, I have thought a lot about why some high quality and once very expensive shotguns have been well preserved and others have not. The formula for the...
Piotti Round-Action
Dan Moore has a long-standing relationship with the Italian gunmaking firm of Fratelli Piotti that goes all the way back to the days of his father, William Larkin Moore. Dan also is a great fan of round-action side-by-side shotguns, especially those from the hands of...
Hunter’s Guide: Classic American Hammer Shotguns
Some of the finest shotguns ever made in America were hammer shotguns produced in the last decades of the 19th century. However, by the end of World War I, most had been retired to gun cabinets to be only admired, not fired. Their barrels had not been designed for the...
Patron Power
What better way to celebrate a lifetime achievement than with a British Best gun. There is no one in the world who doesn’t like being rewarded for hard work. Whether it’s a book well written, service to the nation or success in popular entertainment, the good and the...
Ithaca Doubles: Overlooked Classics
Like many enterprises of the time, its origins were humble. It began in a rough little wooden structure perched precariously on the steep gorge of Fall Creek near Ithaca, New York. The virtue of the location was its abundant water power, and the building had already...
Holland & Holland’s Aim for the Future
Holland & Holland, long respected for producing firearms of the highest quality, was acquired in 2021 by the Beretta Holding Group from the French perfume company, Chanel. For three decades, the French company tried to redefine and reinvent the venerable old gun...
Shotguns Across the Pond
At one time, controversy raged over who made the finest guns. Americans pointed to Parker, L. C. Smith, Fox, Ithaca, Lefever and late-to-the-party Winchester. British gentleman would talk James Purdey, Holland & Holland, Henry Atkin, Grant, Lang, Westley Richards...
Early 20th Century Affordable American Doubles
If a person wants to hunt with the same double barrel shotgun that his or her grandfather or great grandfather used in the early 20th century, the odds are ten-to-one it would not be one of the premium brands that today dominate side-by-side competitions and shotgun...
Benelli’s ETHOS: One Formidable Beauty
Benelli’s ETHOS line proves they are nearing perfection in a semi-auto. “Back in the day,” when we were just beginning to discover the incredible number of gamebirds in South America, gunmakers worldwide were competing to see who could develop shotguns that could...