Some of you (who probably have too much time on your hands) know that I had a short-lived blog called Shotgun Chronicle. It was largely a running list of guns I couldn’t afford to buy. Eventually I simply couldn’t keep up with all the hours searching Gunbroker in an attempt to fill my imaginary gun room and I shut the blog down.
Since upland seasons are over and it’s gear season, I’m going to bring back some SC content and maybe even write a new post or two. This is the Shotgun Chronicle reboot, via MOF.
This is a photo of a screw from a French-built 20ga SxS. It’s not a fancy gun, just a well-built guild gun, trim and fast, well balanced and modestly engraved. You’ll notice it has a serial number that matches the gun’s. This is the screw that resides under the top lever and pulls the trigger plate tight to the bottom of the action from above.It’s also engraved on the head. When was the last time a gunmaker hand cut the engraving on a screw head for a gun costing less than a small house? When was the last time someone bothered to engrave a screw that you can’t even see when the gun is closed?
All in all, this little gun has about a dozen numbered parts.
Admittedly, some of this part numbering was self-serving because every part need to be timed and mostly hand fit. Numbering ensured getting the right screws back in the right gun if you had more than one on the bench or if a gun was sent out for engraving or bluing.
Still, it’s impressive and pretty cool to think about.
It makes you feel a little connection to the small gunmaker laboring over an individual gun sometime between the wars.
Mouthful of Feathers 
The detail found on this screw in amazing . Just like the Prussian Charles Daly’s made by HA Lindner 1880 – 1905,superb detail , hand crafts of quality either gone or unaffordable .