Shotgun Technicana: the Second Edition

Shotgun Technica: Second Edition | Shooting Sportsman Magazine

I first met Michael McIntosh in David Trevallion’s workshop, in Maine, while David was adjusting my Thomas Horsley sidelever hammergun. A fellow sporting a beard, a pipe and a twinkle in his eye entered the room, took the gun out of David’s hands and proclaimed, “This is a best gun!”

David quipped, “McIntosh, it will be if you let me finish working on it!”

Sadly, Michael McIntosh left us in 2010. He was a shooting instructor, world traveller and author or co-author of an impressive number of books and articles on fine firearms, wildlife art and natural history. His books included The Best Shotguns Ever Made in America, A.H. Fox, Best Guns, Shotguns and Shooting, The Best of Holland and Holland and many more.

Writing for many publications, Michael was the Gun Review Editor of Shooting Sportsman from 1988 to 1996. Then, teaming with David Trevallion, a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Gunmakers and formerly a stockmaker for James Purdey & Sons, the pair wrote a column for Shooting Sportsman titled Technicana. In 2002 five years’ worth of these columns were collected and enhanced in the book Shotgun Technicana. Long out of print, first-edition copies have sold for hundreds of dollars.

Written in a uniquely accessible style, Shotgun Technicana explores every aspect of fine guns and is underpinned by detailed diagrams, photographs and interviews with specialist English gunmakers. Included in the 19 chapters are explanations of sidelock and boxlock actions, self- and assisted-opening mechanisms, forearm-attachment hardware, stockmaking, barrel construction, barrel regulation, extraction and ejection systems, and nomenclature. The book is about “how it was done rather than how to do it.”

The hardcover second edition sports a color dust jacket and runs 201 pages, including an index with some of David’s handwritten notes. New is a four-color frontispiece showing David in his workshop with late President George H.W. Bush holding his Boss 20-bore over/under, which was fitted, restocked and overhauled by David. The text includes black & white photos and diagrams drawn by David. The price is $90. Bookplates signed by David are available at extra cost. For more information, contact Gunnerman Books.


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