I am committed to rescuing neglected shotguns and shooting them. I search for them at gun shelters; pawn shops, old school gun shops, and the back rows of gun shows. I bring them home, care for them, and they get a second chance at life. Shooting them has proven to be very rewarding!

They are the working man shotguns of previous generations. The shotguns I seem to be attracted to are the pumps and autos that date from the late 30's through the early 60's. Guns that were seen at the blue collar 'Sportsman's Club' where I was a trap boy back in the 60's. Men that had known tough times that now had steady work and would come out to the club with their one all-purpose shotgun they owned and try a round of trap for the first time.

To rescue these shotguns you have to accept that they come with some life baggage; polychokes, amateur refinish attempts, usually no vent ribs, pencil engraved names/driver's license numbers, misfitted recoil pads, dings and boo-boos. Some might be 16 gauge or be a department store brand. They often have full chokes and if they clean up good and function well they can be opened up to something more user-friendly. But this is for sure: if you are seeking collector pieces in original condition then being a rescue gun person is not for you.

Good news is they can be had cheap, some cosmetic things can be improved, and most importantly some still shoot very, very well. First thing I do is clean them up and go shoot some clay targets. This will tell what kind of mechanical issues need dealt with. Often it's just a spring or two and getting some ancient crud out. If they prove to be good shooters perhaps some of the cosmetic issues can be addressed.

The best rescues are often the forgotten gun models as they often sit the longest waiting for somebody to take them home. They can prove to be the most rewarding shooting experience. I will list some of success story rescues that shoot very well.

Savage 755A 16-gauge (far right in photo): This came to me in poor condition and it's not a pretty gun to begin with. It was so far gone in the looks department that I had to refinish it. Being a sub-200 dollar gun to begin with I didn't that it was a sin to refinish it. It cleaned up well and shoots very well for me. Being all steel it's heavy but for the clay target shooting I do it's not a bad thing. Fit/finish of the internals is quite good. I like 16 gauge 1 oz. loads on clay targets.

Stevens 621 12-gauge (middle): I went through a lot of these Browning design series Stevens pumps including the Wards/Sears branded versions. This vent rib version is not often encountered and this particular one shoots/functions very well. It has the original modified choke that is more like a full choke.

High Standard Flite-King 12-gauge(on left): These and the similar Sears-J.C. Higgins Model 20's are often overlooked and can be picked up quite cheap. They work!

Very cool!


DMc

Very nice.. I missed out on and older Stevens pump shotgun several years ago.. I remember it as a square backed model similar to the A5 Browning auto.. It was in very fine shape for $159.. Kick myself everytime I think of it.. Also had a J. C. Higgins model 20 12 ga. when I was a kid..The tightess shooting shotgun I ever owned.. Sold it to a friend who was a turkey hunter.. His son is still shooting it today.. I have looked for another with a rib for years.. no luck.. Some nice oldies there..

I have rehabbed so far several Ithaca model 37-s of various guages. Two model 97 Winnnies, One Model 37 Winnie, Several old auto remmie modes 58, 11, 11-48.

Purchased a brand new 870 express, hard case, full set of choke tubes, cleaning kit etc in a Lefty for my Grand Nephew who's graduating H.S. this week. Gave him a 1950-s era Wingmaster 20 ga when he turned 15. He is from a single parent family & mom can't afford such things. I've been mentoring him part time as he's 150 miles away.

Just "Re-habbed" an 11-48 28ga for my oldest daughter.



Her husband works for Arctic Cat and he wanted his 870 in their colors.

Would love to see the 37's you did.


DMc

Middle daughter married a lefty. He wanted a tacti-kewl Dove demolisher.





Middle daughter's 1100 20ga.





DMc

All I did was buy'em, break'em down to parts to clean them up & start killing Pheasants & Grouse with them. Gave one to a Grand Nephew (diff one). Same with the semi - autos, major cleaning & reassembly & put them to work.
Had the choke opened on one Ith. 37 & one Win 97 for bird hunting.

The artic cat 870 looks awesome. Was that painted or what?

That 28 ga does not come cheap either. I've been watching them online for awhile. I also still would like to find an 1148 16 ga with the 26" I.C. choked bbl.

I tried to paint it and it turned out awful, so I ordered a hydro-graphic and clear-coated the snot out of it.





DMc

Very effective!

Nice job all around!

Love that Stevens takedown system. Have an old humpback that I cut down laying around. Think I have the original barrel as well but have to look. They don't necessarily swap back and forth but sometimes it works.

Some of the High Standard pumps used the basic design from the Remington Model 31 but I don't know which ones.

nice guns.

now, the secret to owning rescue shotguns is to not put money in them!
wouldnt you agree?
i mean, the bargain is buying them cheap and instantly using them. the minute you put time and cash into it....its like owning a chevy vega with a ten thousand dollar sound system in it. no matter what you do to it, its still a chevy vega.

i like old mossberg bolt guns. like the 183 series. great gun, but rest assure, im not going to refinish them or put 300.00 optics on them....like the mall ninjas do.

and as for polychokes? you know, ive never known one to fall into the pond or get forgotten back in the pickup while hunting.
instant choke change with no tools. it was cool then, and its still cool today.

i take it youre a gunsmith?

Me a gunsmith? Not hardly....My gunsmith sees me pull up to the shop and must think 'my day just got better!' and quits worrying so much about the payment on his F-250.

And I think I got a couple of them Vegas with new leather seats.

Seriously, the polychokes do work. 95%+ of shotgun shooters could not tell the difference between the effectiveness of patterns of one of them then a back-bored, crio'd, long tubed, Italian latest-greatest.

I agree with all that. The best shotguns were built a long time ago. I now have one, I plan to look for more.

Those Stevens 620s and 621s were stout old pumps, about the heaviest of the pre-war pumps.

I've bought a couple of old pump guns at auction that had been dragged out of the closet or attic where they had been stored without a case--bone dry and full of house-dust. I got them fairly cheap because the dry actions worked so stiff that everyone thought they were defective.

Only one thing more rare than a Burgess wrist slide action shotgun is to find someone that can work on it. It will kill birds...

Still have that Shrapnel???

I've rescued a bunch of police trade-in 870s over the years, keeping one in the truck, one in the closet, and used one for 3 gun matches, among other things.

Cops hardly ever use their shotguns, and they're usually mechanically in great shape.

I monkey around with 'em, sell them or trade them on something else, and always, always keep an 870 around for hunting, too.

I still have it. Steven Dodd Hughes did an article on it for "Shooting Sportsman"...

Cool. That was a great write up! Still have a copy of that issue.

Great thread! I agree that the Hi-Standard pumps, including the J.C. Higgins Model 20 are "sleepers." I have a good friend I used to hunt chukars with (before I got too old to fall off mountains) who used nothing else for years and still uses it at times. No maintenance, no issues.

Most people can't really shoot a bolt action shotgun fast enough for multiple shots on one bird or a covey. But I have another friend in upstate NYS who has never had anything but a Mossberg 20 guage bolt action and kills grouse regularly with it. I've seen him nail them with the second shot, too. But he rarely misses the first. Kills deer with it, too. (It does have the little "U" rear sight that some of them have. But of course that's totally NOT adjustable.).

And I agree with the remarks on the "polychokes." Only reason to use anything else is if you are addicted to doubles ("Guilty as charged"....) or an Olympic class trapshooter. Butt they ARE butt-ugly.

Just finished a couple more...,

28ga for youngest daughter and a 20ga for SIL, both under 6lbs.

This one was a project only half the stock left.



It was worth the effort , a very nice shooting rig.



And there were a few pieces missing and some major cracks



Now it's back in the field hopefully for another hundred years.



16x16 x 9.3x72R

I rescued a Model 12, 12 ga w/a cutts recently. Originally a 50s U.S. Marked receiver with a 20" barrel then a choke added. I suspect it was a Bureau of
Prisons gun, carried a lot, shot little. $140 plus tax at a pawn shop. I could have an Briley barrel extender made and still be close to $300, but why. The choke tube happened to be an IC.

Jack

I encountered a Burgess this past weekend. My son went to a shooting get-together with a bunch of guys and one them pulls out a Burgess. Man, those are nice looking guns. He ran that gun all day and never jammed it once.