Thread: English & Spanish side by sides

Can you still shoot it ??

Yes it shoots and regulates well with a nitro for black load the barrels are mint.

that must be quite a thrill using that fine gun to take game . i have a hammer shotgun DAMASCUS barrels I will shoot a pheasant with this year and am looking forward to it -sad its only a liege gun from Belgium of no note

It is a very satisfying to use a gun made 140 years or so ago and do with it what the maker intended when it left his shop. I think E Payton & Son would be pleased. It's not something I use often as it needs to be looked after for the next owner and I see no reason it cant still kill deer in another 140 years.

if the ribs are braised you will be able to hot blue,but this is most unusual.most ribs/barrels are soldiered, so to hot blue them would be a disaster.

You need to be carefull as most of the early shotguns are soldered together and hot bluing get too hot and the barrels fall apart which is not the desired result. If your friend metioned only going to a 400 finish then I would suggest that the original blue was a rust blue

Interesting as far as the braise and solder -how do you tell which is what ? Also the grain of the abrasive , when do you go past the 400 grit ? I have successfully stipped my barrels right back with 320 and tonight will do a 400grit wet and dry rub and then onto 800 .

If it is a rust blue that you are using then you are wasting your time going to 800, to be blunt the rust might not even take on such polished steel. 400 grade is max and 360 is better.
You only want to be going to 800 or finer, 1000, 1200 etc if you are hot bluing. You are using wet and dry paper?

You can rust blue any shotgun but you can only hot blue shotguns with a braised rib and for myself I work on the reasoning that any S x S is soldered unless it is a very modern S x S. Solder is silver in colour and brasing is a bronzy, yellow colour

if you look at the barrel end,give them an emery polish if necessary,you can tell if they are braised or soldiered.if only silver which i can almost guarantee it will be, it is soldiered,if you can see bronze/brass colour it is braised,but like chop3r says it is fatal to make a mistake and have them hot blued,the barrels just come apart. also in my previous post about soaking oil soaked wood, that should read acetone, not white spirits. white spirits is alright for short immersions,but acetone for long soaks,also remove the finish first with paint stripper etc.

Originally Posted by lophortyx

if you look at the barrel end,give them an emery polish if necessary,you can tell if they are braised or soldiered.if only silver which i can almost guarantee it will be, it is soldiered,if you can see bronze/brass colour it is braised,but like chop3r says it is fatal to make a mistake and have them hot blued,the barrels just come apart. also in my previous post about soaking oil soaked wood, that should read acetone, not white spirits. white spirits is alright for short immersions,but acetone for long soaks,also remove the finish first with paint stripper etc.

I was going to say something It would be a very oily stock to need that treatment but it can happen. Gun oil has a lot to answer for

great info guys ! im definitely soldered as i can see silver on the side of the rib . ill take the finish back a little from 8 to 360 ! the action i have on the C Osbourne action -may have called it a C lancaster at some stage - looks like the last owner hit it with a buff -badly also . i would like to get a consistent finish on the metal work . would you suggest wet and dry ?

This thread almost made me start cleaning up my old SxS since I got it working properly. But I don't have checkering tools or know how to checker yet. I might borrow the engaver from school and go over the old worn out engraving though and have a go at blueing the old metal.

Originally Posted by Toby

This thread almost made me start cleaning up my old SxS since I got it working properly. But I don't have checkering tools or know how to checker yet. I might borrow the engaver from school and go over the old worn out engraving though and have a go at blueing the old metal.

Toby , start engraving on an old bit of metal as it takes alot of practice and you should do the same before checkering to . im going to do some checkering but fist have to make myself believe i will have the patience to Finnish it!!

Yes to the wet and dry sandpaper and do use it with water and or thin oil as it cuts better. Couple of tips, the use of latex gloves is well worth considering especially if you are doing a lot of steel prep and do use backing on any sandpaper

Originally Posted by el borracho

Toby , start engraving on an old bit of metal as it takes alot of practice and you should do the same before checkering to . im going to do some checkering but fist have to make myself believe i will have the patience to Finnish it!!

And first you have to make the cutter to do that flat top checkering as you cant buy them. There are ways around that though