Defining a Fine Shotgun

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If you’ve been to a high-end gun shop or out on the floor of the SHOT show you have no doubt caught yourself looking at the engraving, the meticulous wood-to-metal fit, the flawless finish and the wood. That deep, rich walnut, full of figure and smooth as glass is something to behold.

Most of my shotgun stocks are presentation-grade birch. One is plastic. There is a third stock, with a matching forearm, that my father hand-carved from some sort of maple… I think. If you imagine a shotgun stock to be smooth, slender and pleasing to the eye, the stock on this old single-barrel is not  involved in those visions. No gunmaker in the world would look at the stock and say, “Wow.”

But my dad made it so I keep it.

All this leads up to the reason I had to hire someone to write about classy double shotguns. I’m pretty much on the opposite side of that coin.  I own an American Arms Silver II that my dad bought when I was about 25.