Double barrel joy
With a history that dates back more than 150 years, double-barreled shotguns have been popular with sportsmen for a multitude of generations. The reason why they have been augmented, but never replaced, by designs that are more modern, is in their inherent set of advantages that prove to make these guns the primary choice for many today.
Back before the Civil War, double barrel shotguns with exposed hammers, typically with the barrels mounted side-by-side (SXS), were among the most popular sporting guns in the country. In fact, many soldiers in that conflict carried these guns into battle as they provided a super-fast second-shot capability at a time when muzzleloaders of the day took nearly a minute to reload. By the 1870s, the British firm of Anson and Deerley patented a hammerless side-by-side and within a couple decades, guns made with better grades of steel and able to fire modern smokeless powder shells were being marketed.
The Remington Model 1894 and later Model 1900 series were among the first hammerless double barrel shotguns made in the U.S. These guns had automatic ejectors, which popped the spent shells out when the hinged action was opened while automatically cocking the internal strikers when the gun’s action closed. Today these classic old guns have been out of production for a century but are still prized by collectors.
Read the rest in my column at 1816 by Remington