Greener GP 12 Gauge Questions

[Old Boggy]

3 hours ago, Keith 66 said:

My late Dad got me one of these for my 16th birthday, great little gun. As Gough Thomas said they are exceedingly well balanced. Mine came from Elderkins wearing a full choke barrel, everything it hit was smashed to jelly. The barrel went back a few weeks later & the choke taken out to imp cylinder. It was transformed & threw lovely patterns. For snap shooting bunnies or pigeons it excelled. I used to take it out on the marsh wildfowling though i must confess eley maximums did tend to make it kick a bit! When my parents moved up north he took it with him & i got it back ten years ago when he passed away. I never found the lack of a second shot a handicap as they can be reloaded very quickly.

What you will find is every bloody time you take it out in company some wag will say "The Zulus are coming!"

The worst single barrel was the pedretti folder, dreadful lightweight things that kicked like an elephant gun.

Having a single barrel certainly concentrates the mind on that first and possibly only shot. Graduating from a .410 at 11 to a single 12 at the age of 13, I had a BSA Snipe ( nowhere near the quality of a Greener GP and ejecting the cartridge whether fired or not) but I was then able to try my hand at ‘shooting flying’ and managed reasonable bags of walked up grey partridges. That was in the days when the stubbles were left over winter and it was common to see several large coveys in the same field. Progressing to a cheap Spanish double had me thinking that I would double the bag. How wrong was I. Instead my accuracy diminished somewhat until I got the hang of once again concentrating on the first shot and not even contemplating a right and left.

OB

[London Best]

44 minutes ago, Old Boggy said:

Having a single barrel certainly concentrates the mind on that first and possibly only shot. Graduating from a .410 at 11 to a single 12 at the age of 13, I had a BSA Snipe ( nowhere near the quality of a Greener GP and ejecting the cartridge whether fired or not) but I was then able to try my hand at ‘shooting flying’ and managed reasonable bags of walked up grey partridges. That was in the days when the stubbles were left over winter and it was common to see several large coveys in the same field. Progressing to a cheap Spanish double had me thinking that I would double the bag. How wrong was I. Instead my accuracy diminished somewhat until I got the hang of once again concentrating on the first shot and not even contemplating a right and left.

OB

I am sure many of us can empathise with your story on a ‘been there, done that’ basis.

[TOPGUN749]

1 hour ago, Old Boggy said:

Having a single barrel certainly concentrates the mind on that first and possibly only shot. Graduating from a .410 at 11 to a single 12 at the age of 13, I had a BSA Snipe ( nowhere near the quality of a Greener GP and ejecting the cartridge whether fired or not) but I was then able to try my hand at ‘shooting flying’ and managed reasonable bags of walked up grey partridges. That was in the days when the stubbles were left over winter and it was common to see several large coveys in the same field. Progressing to a cheap Spanish double had me thinking that I would double the bag. How wrong was I. Instead my accuracy diminished somewhat until I got the hang of once again concentrating on the first shot and not even contemplating a right and left.

OB

My first 12 bore was also a BSA Snipe,got it second hand for £13 in 1972,today I couldn’t even give away a gun like that! Yet then it was weeks wage to many adults!

[islandgun]

Theres an interesting GP on Holts sealed bid auction now, it has two barrels one full length moderated and one normal . made by an apprentice with Greener

[Classified]

26 minutes ago, islandgun said:

Theres an interesting GP on Holts sealed bid auction now, it has two barrels one full length moderated and one normal . made by an apprentice with Greener

That is interesting, I may bid on that ive wanted an extra barrel for this one. Really love the GP so far 

[Old Boggy]

1 hour ago, TOPGUN749 said:

My first 12 bore was also a BSA Snipe,got it second hand for £13 in 1972,today I couldn’t even give away a gun like that! Yet then it was weeks wage to many adults!

If I recall, I paid £11 for my second hand Snipe which must have been in 1961. I remember saving up the money earned from selling stalked rabbits with the .410. 

I`m not sure whether they wore that well as the action was some sort of alloy with a black coating.

OB

[enfieldspares]

On 26/03/2024 at 00:05, 39TDS said:

Sold mine to someone who wanted to pretend it was a rifle and reenact being a soldier in Rourke's Drift.

Love it! I used to pull the cartridges just part way out my father's 20 bore side by side so you could only see the brass bases and imagine it was a double rifle! True!

[Whiff-of-grape]

I shoot better with my full length Greener than any other gun I own. The only drawback is just one barrel. I bought a shortened version someone had soldered sights on to use as a slug gun and it works quite well apart from a very heavy trigger. Still looking for an Egyptian Police model if anyone knows if there's one out there.

[impala59]

On 09/04/2024 at 13:03, islandgun said:

Theres an interesting GP on Holts sealed bid auction now, it has two barrels one full length moderated and one normal . made by an apprentice with Greener

Someone paid up for this lot, over £1000 plus fees! Obviously, it has some provenance  for a collector. Additionally all the Greeners went in the sealed bid auction, times past they would all be in the unsold lots. Perhaps the venerable GP is seeing a resurgence of popularity?

Edited April 23 by impala59

[islandgun]

2 hours ago, impala59 said:

Someone paid up for this lot, over £1000 plus fees! Obviously, it has some provenance  for a collector. Additionally all the Greeners went in the sealed bid auction, times past they would all be in the unsold lots. Perhaps the venerable GP is seeing a resurgence of popularity?

Wow thats good money, like you say good provenance, Looking at the results from past auctions many of the interesting guns are fetching more than the projected price. It would be good to see sensible prices return. Not so good for you in this case though.