The Bird Hunters Guide to Buying a Vintage Shotgun

Hey everyone, it's Chris Ingram, Digital Editor at Gundog, and I'm here at the Peaceable Hill Farm in Shoreham, Vermont. I'm with Lars Jacob of Lars Jacob Wing Shooting and Wild Surroundings. Lars is a wing shooting instructor. He's also a gun fitter and quite a bit of a shotgun aficionado. So we're here today to talk about vintage shotguns. So Lars, I'm coming up through the ranks as a hunter chasing birds and have been more and more interested in purchasing a vintage shotgun. I know very little about it. I've heard a couple of the names, but in case there's someone else like me who's interested in first and foremost shooting and hunting with these guns, would like to get a little info from you on how that might differ, you know, from somebody that's looking to collect. So can you give us any high level information as we're starting our search for our first or our next vintage shotgun? Well, absolutely. First of all, Chris, thank you very much for inviting me on and having this little discussion because this is what I love talking about and welcome to Peaceable Hill Farm. What a great time to be interested in vintage guns. It's a buyer's market right now. There's a lot of them out there. We got these wonderful, wonderful game guns out there that still can be used that are dying to get back out in the field and famous names like Parker and Fox and Lefevre and Elsie Smith that are known in the U.S. makers and then the English makers and UK makers, the famous Scottish makers, who I personally still think are probably some of the greatest guns ever made. It's hard for them to build a gun today like they built it back then during the golden era of gun making. So you're getting a fantastic, beautiful piece of work and they carry delightfully light, they respond very well, and they're just a wonderful, wonderful bird hunting gun. The things that you have to look for in obviously older guns is how they were maintained. That's the most important thing. So when you're looking for these particular guns, we look for any aftermarket work that may have been done to them that may have been done not as well as it should that could have harmed the gun or aftermarket work that may be covering up something that happened, a dent in the barrel or something of that nature. So the barrels are always the foremost important to inspect. If the wood looks great but it's not quite to your dimension, that's an easy fix. If there's an ejector hanging up, that's an easy fix. But if there's something wrong with the barrels, there's nothing you can do about it. So look at the barrels first, check for dents, hopefully where you are shopping for that particular gun has the information that you may need like wall thickness, bore diameters, and stuff like that and make sure that the gun is still safe. That's the most important part of looking for vintage guns. You mentioned some of the names that I'm familiar with certainly up here in New England and the classic Americana, the Parkers, the Foxes, the Smiths. You mentioned some of the other names. So if those of us that are shopping, we've identified the action type we like, maybe we have a preferred bore of choice, where can we start to find these guns available for purchase? Well, that's a good question because everything's done so much internet now and that's difficult to do. I mean, I try to tell people who are in search of guns, use me all you want, give me a call. If you find something on Guns International or Guns America, send me the link and I'll tell you if it's right for you or not. So that's a service that I can offer my clients. But for those who don't have that liaison, it's really better to go take the time, take the vacation, take the family, whatever, and go to one of these beautiful, fun game fairs. So can you help us identify a certain price range or price points? What can somebody in this market expect to spend out of their pocket? Yes. Well, I'll be honest with you, the American vintage guns are going to be a little more expensive and they might require a little bit more money invested in them after you purchase to make sure that they work for you. So there might be some stock work that needs to be done and that's a little more cost. Very, very good original condition, draw large money. And those are the ones that the collectors want. But you don't need it in that condition to be a shooter. If you're doing it because you read Burton Spiller and he was shooting his Parker on Woodcock and Grouse and that's why you want to do it, well, that was just a V grade, that was a low grade Parker, but it was Burton Spiller's Parker. So we want one. And so in which case you can find them a little less expensive. The UK and European guns are a little bit different. They tell you a story. We're the only country that doesn't have federal proof houses. American vintage guns don't have that story stamped on their barrel flats and water table. So it's more important to utilize micrometers and things like that, or have someone that does know how to use these type of tools to make sure that they are sound. So I understand there's a lot of variance to it, American versus UK guns condition is a big factor. Can you give us any kind of ballpark estimates on what we might be looking at? You're looking into your more known grades of Parkers and Smiths and stuff, you're going to be starting at about $2,500 and that means you might still have a little bit of money to add to it to work. The UK guns right now that we are starting to see come across the pond you can get into super lightweight 12 gauge guns. I mean, I'm talking six pound 12 gauge guns that you can shoot very light loads out of for 1500 bucks. And more than likely, it's already going to have the wood dimensions that are more suited to today's instructed shooter. Yeah. These are certainly works of art, working art. So once we get this gun in our hand, and we're shooting it and we're hunting with it, is there anything we need to consider in terms of ongoing care and maintenance so we can get them another 100 years? You know, the gun, the gun design hasn't changed that much over generations and generations of gun making. So very similar to how you would clean your modern day break action guns. Yeah, very good. This has been great, Lars. Appreciate all of your knowledge and insight and helping us in our journey toward getting our first or our next vintage shotgun. But where can people find out more about you and the services that you offer? Yeah, no, Lars Jacob and Lars Jacob Wingshooting. Actually, the website is wildsurroundings.com. And Lars Jacob Wingshooting is just part of Wild Surroundings. So you can always see me on Instagram at Wild Surrounds. You can find me on Facebook at Wild Surrounds, Wild Surroundings, or on the website, wildsurroundings.com. Awesome. Well, thanks so much, Lars. My pleasure.