Old double barrels are fun. I've got a Wards Hercules 50 12-gauge. I obtained it from a friend in 2009. One barrel is open, the other modified. The gun was in original shape, the wood a bit rough, but still wearing it's beautiful engravings.
In the autumn of 2009, on a day filled with a rain/snow mix I was hunting grouse with a friend north of Paradise Valley, NV. We had hunted several hours and I was tired; snagging my foot in a sagebrush trunk I fell and both my knees landed on the gun. I had the top mounted slide safety on and was covering it with my thumb, but apparently pulled if off in the fall. The gun went off, firing both barrels. The pain was intense in my knee caps, I was afraid to look thinking I just blew one or both of them off. It took a while to find all of the gun, as the stock and receiver went one way and down into the gulch that I was walking along and was hidden in the dense and large Great Basin sage along the creek. The main stock, which was already slivering, broke the end of one of the tangs.
Researching replacement wood, I found a bit of history behind the gun. And a month's long search for replacement wood. The Wards Hercules 50 is made by Stevens, and over the years various models; often models 311 and 316. They look identical. Stevens built that gun for decades, and did so for retailers such as Sears, Montgomery-Wards, Western Auto and the like. But I could see very subtle differences between the tangs of my gun and the other Stevens models. After calling around to various gun shops nationally, I talked to a man who owned a midwestern shop and who had a hunch and told me to get all the numbers off the gun and call back. All numbers matched on my gun, and it told him that my gun was actually a Stevens Model 5000, built in the 1920s. And he had one blank set in stock. I spent several more months fitting and finishing the stocks for my gun. Though not as pretty as the original, it is functional.
Nevada gun laws allow for a loaded gun to be carried in a vehicle, but not chambered. By design, my double barrel shotgun is cambered if it is loaded. So that made hunting difficult. When hunting chukars near my home, for example, flushing out the birds as I make my way slowly along the two-track trail while driving, I can quickly exit my truck and shoot. With the Hercules, I had to load first while my buddy has already knocked down two or three birds with his pump action shotgun, the rest of them now long gone, while I'm fiddling with loading my Hercules. I felt like Barney Fife having to load his revolver with his single bullet that he had to keep in his pocket. And, my word! That Hercules is heavy!
So now my upland game hunting is done with my Mossberg Maverick pump action 12-gauge. But I still like to shoot clay pigeons with my Hercules. It's an accurate gun.
Below are images of the gun when I first bought it, and after restoration.
