"This is Sxxt"

[Silvers]

Some few years ago while at a SxS event I was talking with a mostly vintage gun dealer I know and he had a nice Remington hammerless double for sale at an attractive price. I looked it over and while it was a quality double gun and in great shape I just wasn't into Remingtons at that time. After a few minutes he went on to lament that Remingtons are so very hard to sell at anything but a pittance and joked that Remington might as well have engraved "This is Sxxt" on the breeches.

Then over the years I'd gotten to writing and more interested in comparisons with other quality makers, and picked up a few good unmolested Remington hammerless doubles at what I thought they worth based on Foxes and Parkers in comparable configurations. Lesser pricing of course but not steals by any means. I shot them occasionally at clays along with hunting and found they worked just as well as the more popular vintage makers.

Just lately I finished my collection reduction and sent those Remingtons to live auction. I keep good records and totaled up my purchase prices, and was disappointed to see that the market valued them at only about 40% of what I'd paid not that long ago. The vignette with the gun dealer's comment came back to mind in spades! To use the vernacular ..... Remington hammerless doubles just don't get no respect.

What say you about pros/cons and your interest in Remington hammerless doubles?

frank

[Researcher]

I have a soft spot in my heart for Remington hammerless doubles as my father loved his above any of his other shotguns. To my eye the Joe Loy engraving on the D- & E-quality Remington doubles is far above anything but the Glahn engraved Lefevers. The wonderful EEO-Grade E.E. Darling 12-gauge --

sold at Julia's in 2016 for only $31,625. Such quality in most any other make would likely have drawn more.

I think the things that mitigate against Remington Hammerless Doubles is that they were the first out of the market back in 1910, when Marcellus Hartley Dodge saw that his John M. Browning designed Remington Autoloading Shotgun and his John D. Pedersen designed Remington Repeating Shotgun were the future. So, the Remington Hammerless Doubles were never offered with a beavertail forearm or a vent rib and while Remington collected a boatload of single selective trigger patents, they never offered one in their catalogs. Also, that they are primarily all 12-gauges with a few 16-gauges and a handful of 10-gauges. Nothing for the smallbore devotees. They were well received in the market in their day. From 1889 to 1910, Remington Arms Co. produced more doubles than Parker Bros. built in their entire run.

E.D. Fulford won the GAH with a Remington Hammerless Double and Remington's professional shooter, William Heer carried the high average for 1906 with a pair of Remington Hammerless Doubles --

[ROMAC]

I got out from under a Grade "B" 1894 a few years ago for about even money and considered myself lucky. Nicely made gun, just not many people wanted to get involved with them.

[fox-admin]

Plain field grade guns made in large numbers rarely command interest in the collectors market unless it has Parker or Winchester stamped/engraved on the gun. Quality is trumped by name recognition and brand. Buy the gun not the name doesn't seem to apply to US SxS's.

[Chrisss31]

I think they're beautiful guns. Even the lower field grade guns are very tasteful.

[Jeff S]

From the Fall 2017 Newsletter. The 1900 was beastly heavy, but I’m sure that many farmers put food on the table with their Remingtons.

IMG_5874.jpeg (102.69 KiB) Viewed 1710 times

[Sporrns]

Ten or 12 years ago, a friend of mine's electrician told him about a an "old Remington double that is completely covered with engraving" that he found in a pawnshop the electrician haunted on a weekly basis. My friend asked me to accompany him to inspect the gun since he was just getting into early American doubles and didn't want to get stung. The gun turned out to be a screaming Remington DEO grade 12 gauge with about 80% condition overall. I benevolently goaded him into buying the gun, then put him in touch with Charlie Semmer, who put pics of the gun in his seminal book on Remington double guns. Moral: Support your local pawnbroker! Kevin

[Fowlgunner]

Very similar experience with the 12 DE and CEO 10 I placed back into circulation a few years ago at an On-Line House.

The 10 had been cut but had beautiful patterns.

The RSA President wound up with it to shoot in Clays events.

I believe he likes it!

Will

[Foxnut]

As I read Frank’s initial comment and Dave’s comments with specifics of production dates, lack of small bores, single triggers, etc. I realized I have never owned a Remington SxS. I have seen a number of them that were high condition examples but they just never tripped my trigger! When I think of Remington’s I think of Model 17’s, 31’s, and 11-48’s . I guess the powers to be at Remington had the forethought towards the future and made a wise business choice that carried them through the 20th century!

[Maggiemollie]

As I read Frank’s initial comment and Dave’s comments with specifics of production dates, lack of small bores, single triggers, etc. I realized I have never owned a Remington SxS. I have seen a number of them that were high condition examples but they just never tripped my trigger! When I think of Remington’s I think of Model 17’s, 31’s, and 11-48’s . I guess the powers to be at Remington had the forethought towards the future and made a wise business choice that carried them through the 20th century!

Don't forget the Model 32 O/U. The design was sold to Kreighoff that produced it as the K32, which ultimately became the K-80. Remington then introduced the 3200 O/U. The 3200 is a fine clay gun.

[eightbore]

I'm surprised that Craig mentioned name recognition and brand when appraising lower grade guns. Certainly condition ranks right up there also. I have two Remington hammer guns that have never been hunting, as near new as any I've seen. One is an 1882 and the other an 1889. They have honored places in my collection. I suspect that one or both came from the Remington museum, because of their source and condition.

[Researcher]

It has been over two years since I've had, a previously unknown to me, D- or E-quality Remington Hammerless Double cross my field of view. This morning a Gun Broker link from "Fowlgunner" was in my email. A 12-gauge DEO-Grade 109701.

It has the early style D engraving with scroll on the sides and game and scroll on the trigger-plate. The listing certainly has some fanciful ad copy but interestingly, it is the highest serial number gun I've seen with what the late Charles Semmer called a "bridge frame" --

[Jeff S]

I like the wood duck engraving.

[DarylC]

That is a beautiful gun Dave.