[beach004]

This photograph was taken in late November, 1948. I am the little boy, now soon to be 80. The man of course is Dad; I have no faintest idea why he is wearing a necktie! But it's the gun I'm writing about. History: Dad moved to Alexandria, Virginia in the late 30's. In 1939 he married my mom; part of her "dowry" was access to the family farm, down west of Fredericksburg, in her family since before The War. Her father had left there to seek his fortune in Alexandria. Yeah, right...his brother kept the farm; but he and Dad would go down there to hunt, mostly quail and rabbits. Dad did not have a gun of his own; he borrowed one or another. Most often it was a 1908 Marlin pump, which, incidentally, I still own. It's a rabbit gun: full choke, 30" barrels. OK sort of for doves--but terrible for quail, which is what Dad wanted to hunt.

So he needed a gun of his own. This same month, he bought the gun in the picture, second-hand but only very slightly used, from a gun shop in Clarendon, Virginia. He loved it, at first; his diary--I have all his diaries, over 80 years worth--says it was a 12 gauge Savage O/U. But soon there was trouble: first, he realized it had 30" barrels, whereas he thought and wanted 28". (I have no idea of the chokes; but with that length, I'd suspect Full and Modified--not stellar for quail.) But more important: he found that when he shot the lower barrel first, often the upper barrel would misfire: I gather the hammer fell--he heard the click--but it didn't fire the primer. He took it back to the seller, who claimed to fix it. I'm still reading his diary, so I don't know the outcome of that problem; but what I remember first hand is that in much later years he told us that the two barrels did not register--did not point exactly in the same direction. I don't know how severe this aberration was; but I do know that soon after he parted with this gun, and got an Ithaca 37, a gun which I have and hunt with to this day.

My question for this forum--at last--is: what gun is this? I can't find it listed in my gun repair manual; I could likely do a deep dive in the Google mines, but I figured readers of this Forum would be able to readily provide the info; I'm particularly interested in whether it's single or double trigger. Any response would be welcome!
Thanks,
Beach004

 

[toptechX6]

I think it may be a model 430, hopefully one of the experts here will know for sure.

 

[beach004]

Thanks for the lead! This could certainly be the gun; to quote again from Dad's diary, "It is a slightly used Savage 12 ga. over and under which retails for "137.50, but I got it for $65, and got a new gun guarantee." As I suspected, it came with fixed Full and Modified chokes; I expect the gun he got had double triggers--single trigger models were non-selective I see--not ideal. Also heavy--7 pounds.

A poor gun for quail over a pointing dog; but we didn't get such a dog for another decade; we hunted them by walking them up, stomping on brush piles; and most of our shooting was at doves and rabbits anyway, so Mod and Full might not have been that bad...

 

[Researcher01]

Some Savage paper from the pre-war era when they made the Model 420 & 430.

My Uncle Irv had a 430 when I was young, but by the early 1950s he went Remington pumps, 870s in 12- & 20-gauge and a 760 in .30-06.

 

[eugene molloy]

I have no faintest idea why he is wearing a necktie!

Because that's what his generation did; dressing down, being dirty and scruffy was for bums. He's neatly and smartly dressed, tie done up, shoes clean, with a protective arm around his son who is also well shod, clean and tidy.

He was a good looking man and saw no need to be anything else than what he was. I think you were both lucky people.

As to the gun ... not a clue.

 

[Jm17]

That photo reminds me of a "my dad wants to meet you before we go on our date" situations.