20 gauge Boss Over and Under Shotg

Wes Dillon was kind enough to give me a private viewing of it a few weeks ago. I came away very impressed and very envious.

This double barrel is the kind of English shotgun I love to see: all original, with a French walnut stock and the maker’s case, it’s tastefully done all around. It’s oozes elegance from muzzle to butt. The barrels are in proof and in excellent shape all around, with bores at .614  and great wall thicknesses (top .038, bottom .040). It was proofed for heavy loads and it has 2 3/4″ chambers (heavy proofing is standard for 20 gauge Boss Over and Unders).

20 gauge Boss Over and Under Shotgun

Back in 1909 when Boss introduced these guns, over-and-under shotguns were nothing new. The idea of stacking barrels had been around for hundreds of years. European makers had been turning out breechloading O/Us for decades. However, they locked up with lumps mounted under the bottom barrel. This made the actions deep, heavy,  and clunky — nothing like their side-by-side counterparts.

Boss’s innovation, or more precisely, Boss actioner Bob Henderson’s innovation, came from how the barrels mounted on the action. Instead of using lumps like his European competitors, Henderson borrowed an old idea created a brilliant new shotgun design. The idea was the trunnion: the projections that mount a cannon barrel in its carriage. Cannons had been built with trunnions for hundreds of years. There were even some poorly made shotgun designs around that used them. But when Henderson adapted trunnions and created the Boss Over and Under shotguns, he created a beautifully made stacked-barrel gun with a slim, sleek action and all the liveliness of a top-quality side by side.

Trunnions on a Boss O/U double barrel shotgun

Take a look at the picture of the barrels to see the trunnions. They are the little buds on either side of the water table, ahead of the 2 3/4″ proof mark. When you put the gun together, these trunnions slide into corresponding slots in the gun’s action. Speaking of putting the gun together, Boss O/Us assemble in a unique way. On a side by side, you drop the barrels down to where they’re perpendicular with the action, catch the hook on the pin, and lift the barrels up and into position. With a Boss O/U, you hold the barrels right above the action and in the same horizontal plan. You then drop them right down and into place, like you’re locking the action and barrels together. Pretty neat.

Like most Boss shotguns, Boss O/Us went through different aesthetic periods. Guns from different times have different looks and designs. I have no idea why. I’ve asked people about this, but no one has ever given me a good reason why. This Boss was made in 1954 and it has the typical look of post-WW2 Over and Unders. To see what I mean, take a close look at the pictures below. Compare the 1954 Boss O/U to the one from 1928. You’ll see the differences.

BTW: the 28 gauge Boss O/U was at Lewis Drake. I handled it at a show.  Perfect.

You can read more about Boss Over and Under shotguns in this excerpt from Michael McIntosh’s book Best Guns.

20 gauge Boss Over Under, 1954

28 gauge Boss O/U, 1926

1937 Parker Catalog

is on Ebay right now. This is one of the nicest Parker catalogs, with nice pictures of all the models. A must-have for serious Parker guys. Hurry, this one ends March 8th at noon PST.

Sage Grouse

From the Los Angeles Times:

“The Interior Department declared Friday that an iconic Western bird deserves federal protection under the Endangered Species Act, but declined to offer that protection immediately — a split decision that will allow oil and gas drilling to continue across large swaths of the mountainous West…”

Read entire article now.

These dogs are some of the top field trial pointers in the UK.

Tip: click on the arrow icon in the lower right to see a full-screen version of the video.

Original 1891 Lefever Catalog

I’ve seen reprints of this catalog, but never the real thing. This one looks like it is in excellent shape. If you’re a serious Lefever collector, it would be nice to have.

Daniel Myron Lefever started making his patented hammerless guns in 1883. A year later, the Lefever Arms Co. was formed with D.M. Lefever acting as superintendent. This catalog would be an excellent record of the models and features available in the early years of this company.

In the Shadow, 2010 National Championship, Ames Plantation

GRAND JUNCTION, Tenn. — The competitors arrived at the historic Ames Plantation in pickup trucks with built-in dog kennels, pulling gooseneck trailers hauling saddle horses. After a year of crisscrossing the country, the holy grail of their sport was at last in reach for the owners of 39 of the best bird-hunting dogs in North America.

The National Championship for Field Trialing Bird Dogs, first held here in western Tennessee in 1896, determines the continent’s most elite canine athlete. On Tuesday, In the Shadow, an English pointer owned by Carl Bowman of Louisville, Ky., and handled by Robin Gates, was named the 111th champion after an event lasting two weeks in which he competed on the third day….

Read the whole article now in the New York Times.

The winner of the 2010 National Champioship is In the Shadow, an English Pointer male. You can read more about In the Shadow’s and his winning run here.

Apparently, Decoverly ran into problems with Pennsylvania’s regulations for commercial dog kennels. This  forced them to cut down on the number of dogs in their kennel.

Stripe, a 1 year old male Ryman English Setter

Originally, I reported that the Bucks County SPCA was a kill shelter. This is not entirely correct. Last Friday I talked to Sarah Hart from the shelter and she clarified things for me.

While Bucks County SPCA does euthanize, it only does so when animals have serious health or temperament issues. Healthy dogs that interact well with adults and children are kept at the shelter until they’re adopted. They’re in no danger of being put down, regardless of how long it takes to find them a new owner.

According to Hart, Decoverly’s setters came to the Bucks County SPCA as part of Pennsylvania’s Safe Harbor program. This program allows commercial kennels to forfeit unwanted animals to a network of shelters throughout the state. These shelters find homes for these animals. They will only put down animals with health or temperament problems.

Hart also informed me that sixteen Decoverly setters were dropped off at the shelter. Two of those dogs — older females with severe medical issues — were euthanized after being evaluated by veterinarians. The remaining dogs were put up for adoption. As of today, two are still waiting for new homes.

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A.H. Fox HE 20 gauge side by side shotgun

The first is this 20 gauge A.H. Fox HE, or Super Fox, shipped from Fox in 1931. Fox made about 300 of these HE-grade side-by-side shotguns — just sixty in 20 gauge and the rest in 12. These guns were heavy, overbored doubles made for wildfowling with Western Cartridge’s Super-X ammo. For the story behind them, check out Chapter 15: Super-Fox from Michael McIntosh’s book A.H. Fox: The Finest Gun in the World.

The other rare double barrel is this 10 gauge Nichols & Lefever A-grade hammer shotgun. Nichols & Lefever was an early partnership between John Nichols and Daniel Lefever. Together they made hammer guns from 1876-1879. These side-by-side shotguns came in six grades: A, AA, B, C , D & E. The AA cost $300 in 1877 – many times more than most Americans made in a year. You can read more about Dan Lefever and his companies here.

Nichols & Lefever 10 gauge A grade hammer shotgun

My Jasmine, Ryman English Setter from Decoverly Kennels. Now at Bucks County Shelter

Now, in response to the uproar they’ve caused, Decoverly Kennels posted their version of things here. They state that the dogs are from their kennel. They also say that the dogs ended up in the shelter because Decoverly Kennels did not comply sections of  PA Act 119 (pdf), a set of regulations governing Pennsylvania dog kennels. In 2008, PA Act 119 was passed by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture Bureau of Dog Law Enforcement.

According to Decoverly’s:

“The two biggest areas of the law that impact us are in relation to temperature and space requirements.”

OK. But the real problem they ran into was:

“We filed for an extension of time to deal with this space issue and were denied.  Therefore to comply with the new state laws we were forced in a short time frame to reduce our overall population.”

I emailed the kennel for some clarification. Their responses to my questions were:

From the time your extension was denied, how long did you have to cut down on the number of dogs in your kennel?

We had roughly 2 months. However, all of the dogs were available for placement from the kennel for a minimum of several months on the younger dogs to just over 5 year with some of the older dogs. Being that our timeline had run out we were faced with a very difficult choice. To either have the dogs go to a no kill shelter or to have them euthanized. We choice the best option for our dogs to get into homes.

I don’t understand why your kennel choose the shelter route. Did you decide that this was the best option for the dogs?

I answered this in the first question. We have always put our dogs first and have tired to give them the best chances for getting into homes. When we were approached by the state utilize this no kill option it was brought to us by the Director of the Region.

So what is Decoverly planning to do now?

FROM THEIR WEBSITE:

“This summer we will undertake a $250,000 construction project to completely enclose our back runs so that we can meet the new temperature requirements.  The bigger issue is that the current configuration of our kennel runs do not provide enough space for the number of dogs we currently have…”

So it sounds like they’re dealing with the issue.  Hopefully, everything will work out — for the dogs and the kennel.

Stripe, a 1 year old male Ryman English Setter

Fortunately, none of these dogs are on death row — yet. The shelter is the Bucks County SPCA in northeastern Pennsylvania.

You can read more about this situation here and here.

Here’s a link to the dogs. Scroll down. They are towards the bottom of the page.

People are speculating that these dogs came from Decoverly Kennels. However, I have NOT confirmed that rumor. I’m trying to find out more information.