quote:

Originally posted by vthoky:
Almost a year ago, in a thread about a Remington 1100, I mentioned a Syracuse Arms double-barrel shotgun I got to look at.

I got another [brief] look at it this morning, while the owner asked me to help learn more about it.

It’s a beautiful gun, really. It needs some more cleaning, though, and I’d love to get some of the rust off of it.

Anyway, the key question today was, “is it 10-gauge?”

Lacking any 10-gauge shells to use for test-fit, I figured I’d just measure the chamber and see what I could learn. I got about 3-1/4” from the barrel opening to a step or shoulder inside the barrel, and a diameter (at the open end) of .845”. I know a 10-gauge shell is .775” or so…. Figuring there’s maybe a bit of taper there to make loading easier, it makes sense that it’d be a 10. At least, it makes sense to me. Am I on the right path here?

And to answer the obvious question, no, there aren’t any markings on it other than “Syracuse Arms Co." on one barrel and “Improved Damascus” on the other. There’s another stamp which I assume (I know) might be a serial number.