[Old Wheelgun]

Hello. At the gun shop this morning on my day off and noticed another old single barrel shotgun came in for sale. This one I am assuming is an H&R made shotgun. It's a 12 gauge with 30 inch barrel. The receiver is marked Bay State with 2 line patent dates up above the hinge pin the holds the barrel on the gun. Overall, the gun i would say 90% to 95% condition. Whoever had it took really good care of it and hardly fired it from the looks of it. The case hardening is very good and so is the wood with no cracks or splits and the action locks up tighter than a bank vault. So, I had to buy it. I don't have one like this and figured it would go good in my collection. Also to mention, this gun has the small splinter forend on it and a screw that holds it on the barrel. My question is...how does the pin come out to remove the barrel off the frame? I never owned one of these model single barrels so I have no idea. I don't want to mess around and bind the pin in the frame so I figured I would ask first. Other question is, How well do these shotguns hold up to shooting? I fired 3 Remington number 8 shot gun club target loads through it which are 2 3/4 dram shells after I brought it home so see how it shoots. Very tight choke. first shot I patterned it and the last 2 shots I shot clay birds and turned them both to dust. Shoots excellent and ejects really good. It throws the shells out farther than my old Iver Johnson champion 12 gauge. I bet Jim Hauff will probably be around to answer. He's the H&R man to talk to. I think I found hobby collecting old single barrel hammer shotguns. There are so many different makes and models that were made. Cheaper made guns but full of history and neat to collect. Jim, if you can educate me a little more on the older H&R single shots, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks again, Bill