Barn guns

[Texas by God]

A friend gave me these shotguns that have literally been in his barn for twenty years.
A Stevens 311 SxS 20 gauge and a Winchester (Cooey) 37A single shot 12 gauge.
The Winchester cleaned up quickly with Kroil and 1-ought steel wool. The Stevens will need a little work on the buttstock to make it safe to shoot. I’ve shot the 37A- ouch!

The Stevens has a WOOD buttplate. Looks factory but I’ve not seen one before.
Functional Barn Guns, or Back Door Guns is what they will be here when I’m done.



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[Jedman]

I had a Stevens 311 20 ga. back in the 70’s it came with a plastic buttplate. Not a bad gun sold new for $89 back then. I have a M 37 A in 410 it’s a sweet gun !
Jedman

[turtlezx]

that same 311 on gunbroker are running 400-500$

[Texas by God]

Jedman, this 37 has a nice trigger…..
It gets me thinking of 45-70 or 50-70


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[cwtebay]

Those are pretty amazing barn guns!

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[Texas by God]

A coat of Krylon Fusion on the steel and some add ons on the stock and the 12 gauge is ready for armadillo and skunk duty!


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[GregLaROCHE]

Congratulations, you lucked out. Nothing like free guns. Someone once gave me a 7.7 Jap. Everything else I had to pay for. A single shot 12 ga. is the most recoil I remember in my life and I’ve shot some big guns.

[Markopolo]

Really nice work Thomas… nice to see your not just sitting around waiting for immigrants to walk by…

[Hickok]

Most of the barn guns I have seen have "bailing-twine" for a sling.

I have also seen a farmer's Winchester 1894 30/30 barn gun hanging off a hook inside his barn doors when it was not sliding around in his pick-up bed! True fact!

The bailing twine also works for holding a bent up tailgate shut on a pick-up, and for fixing fences!

[Pereira]

Congrats on the two, I have a 311, but in 410.
That 37 turned out pretty good.

Hey GregLR, I had a Savage pump in 12 ga. for a while, I believe it to be the most uncomfortable thing I ever shot.

RP

[georgerkahn]

Congrats on your acquisitions! A close friend, now deceased, was a cow-farmer with the supplemental goat or two, his two prized/loved horses, and God only knows how many free-range chickens. In his barn he had a Stevens Model 58 20-gauge scattergun -- with one filled magazine in it and a 2nd in a zip-lock bag hanging from a nail adjacent to it. On his belt he pretty much always carried a Charter Arms Bulldog .44. I'd never before -- or after -- seen a Model 58 Stevens -- which worked for him. I recall his voicing his not needing a 12-gauge as there's always (from experience!) too much clean-up after each shot; and, he didn't care for anything in 16-gauge. You brought back good memories -- I do wonder what ever happened to his shotgun...
geo

[TNsailorman]

Quite a few of the farmers in our area use to have barn guns to take care of whatever was a problem for them, whether it be snakes (mostly copperheads ), skunks, rats, and sometimes foxes after the chickens. And being East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia and a lot of rain and weather, they would usually rust pretty bad. I reclaimed one of them myself, an Iver Johnson Champion in 12 gauge. It was rusty and the stock had been broken in about 3 place and taped up heavily. The fore end had also been split and tapped up. But my son (15 at the time) and I took it to several Turkey Shoots and he won our Thanksgiving turkey a couple of years in a row with it in that condition. I finally sent it off to have it re-blued and the place I sent it to must have just sand blasted it and blued it because it was not a very good job of bluing. I bought a Fajen Stock and fitted it and even glass bedded it to the action. It still shoots beautifully. james

[Bazoo]

Nice. I would guess the buttplate is homemade after the plastic one broke. Never heard of or seen a wooden one before.

[Mk42gunner]

I've seen a few wooden buttplates. Some of them actually looked factory made, some looked like a drunk beaver chewed them out.

The worst recoiling shoulder fired gun I can remember shooting is an 12 ga 3½" chambered H&R/NEF National Wild Turkey Foundation gun with a 22" barrel. The little darling comes with a heavy recoil reducer in the stock, which throws the balance way off. With a 2 oz payload it is simply brutal.

Take the weight out and use 2 3/4" field loads, and it makes a dandy squirrel gun.

No I have never been stupid enough to try the heavy loads without the weight.

I also have zero interest in firing any of the .50 BMG rifles out there.

Robert

[Texas by God]

Really nice work Thomas… nice to see your not just sitting around waiting for immigrants to walk by…

Thanks Marco!
Senor Abbot is flying a few out- y’all need any up there?


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[Texas by God]

I took the Winchester for a walk this morning and it’s a good companion. Of course the crows stayed away!


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[Adam Helmer]

Texas,
Very nice restoration of that shotgun! In 1958, at age 13, I went hunting small game in PA at age 13 with a Winchester M37 16 gauge. I have seen many barn guns in this most rural of PA counties since I arrived in 1988. Most were in the milk houses and all had various degrees of rust.

About 30 years ago, an old widow farmer nearby gave me their farm gun. It was a Sears 12 gauge bolt action shotgun still loaded and covered with surface rust. I unloaded the gun, steel wooled the exterior and was surprised to see the bore was bright! I shot trap loads, Buck and slugs out of it without any problems.

I cleaned and greased the old farm gun, wrapped it in a clean garbage bag and stashed it in my barn with a few rounds-in case of future need. Farm Guns Soldier ON...

Adam