Description

#4663 Spencer 1882 Slide-Action 12ga shotgun, re-issue of 1896 by Bannerman & Sons after Spencer Arms ran into financial difficulties in the late 1880s. Standard grade, 32-inch barrel, longer circle-grooved forearm, and having an average black-powder bore showing light to moderate pitting, but certainly looking shootable AFTER a thorough safety check and blessings by a competent gunsmith …and using ONLY light black powder loads, of course! The Spencer slide-action was the first commercial success of a repeating shotgun (in 1882), which ultimately led to the demise of the double-barrel as the shotgun of choice ….but the company only lasted until 1889 when it was sold to Bannerman. This gun has a good ammount of Damascus pattern remaining on the barrel and thin casecolor still evident on the left side of the receiver. It does have some darker grey mottling on the right side, but this is very light as far as pitting is concerned. It seems totally functional in its mechanics. The wood has a serious deficit to the wrist from a total break, and while it has been somewhat crudely repaired with screws, it really could be made much better with a re-do of the repair with good epoxy and dowels, and then refinishing. These are impressive, rather ugly and ungainly guns, but like the Winchester lever shotguns, they were extremely popular for a ten year period. About VG/VG+ with the exception of the poor wrist repair. $695. (Please read sellers rules below ..and thanks for looking!!)