Remington Side by Side Shotgun - What model?

[RZMike]

Hello all,

I found your message board after searching for information about my Remington 12 gauge side by side shotgun. I'm curious as to what model I have and if possible what year is was made. On the side it says "Remington Arms Co" I also found a 5 digit number under the barrel, on the underside of the wooden piece under the barrel and on the receiver. The numbers all match (from what I did read this is important) I've been through the resources on your site and searched your achives, but I just don't know enough about guns to figure it out.

It was my grandfather's, but my father doesn't remember much about it. I inherited it when my grandfather passed away some years ago. Back then the internet didn't exist, and none of the local gun shops could help me. So, I put it away and kind of forgot about it.

Here are some pictures. I didn't know what to take a picture of. If a more detailed shot of something would help, I can do that.

Thanks for any help,

Mike

[Researcher]

Remington Arms Co. only manufactured one model of hammer double barrel shotgun, the Model 1889. Their predessor E. Remington & Sons made a number of different hammer double models. The serial numbers on the Model 1889 appear to have started with 30000 and had reached over 100000 by 1900. That meant they were overlapping with the serial numbers of the Remington Hammerless double which began at 100000. So, they jumped Model 1889 serial numbers to 200000 and went on up to 259262 in 1910, when Remington saw where the real money was and dumped their break action guns in favor of their Browning and Pedersen designed repeaters.

The Model 1889 was made in 10-, 12-, and 16-gauges and seven grades. The lowest grade, Grade 1, had decarbonized steel barrels. A Grade 2 had twist steel barrels and a Grade 3 had Damascus barrels. Grades 1, 2, and 3 had no engraving and half-pistol grip stocks. Higher grades, 4, 5, 6, and 7 had increasing amounts of engraving, finer wood and checkering, and finer Damascus barrels. The Model 1889 was dropped in 1908, but a few in the 259,xxx range were in the final sale of all Remington break open shotguns, on hand and in process, to Norvell-Shapleigh of StLouis, on February 3, 1910.

[RZMike]

Thanks for the info. Looks like mine is a lot older than I thought. If I read your infomation correctly, mine was produced before 1900 since it has a 73XXX number and appears to be a Grade 1.

One last question - is it safe to shoot one that old?

[Researcher]

No one can tell you over the internet that a gun is safe to shoot. It needs to be examined by a competent double gun smith. According to the serial number table in Charles Semmer's book on Remington Doubles, a gun in the 73,xxx range would be late 1895 or early 1896 vintage. These old Remington doubles were usually built with 2 5/8 inch chambers in 12-gauge, and were built well before modern SAAMI spec ammunition arrived in the 1920s.