I know what this is. Do you?
 

This shotgun was made in between 1950 and 1953 in SIlver Creek NY, at a plant located on Mechanic Street. When the company went bankrupt in 1953, Their remaining stock was bought by Numrich Gun Parts, and some of their NOS products were bought by Marlin for use in the R&D department. The end result was the Levermatic .22. Who can tell me the name of the company that made this?

I think its a Kessler? It's been a while since I've seen or heard of one.

That would be the correct answer. It is a Kessler Arms Corp. model 30 C. That thing on the end of the barrel is a Komp-Choke, with 6 choke settings. The settings range from Long range, 2, Mid range,4, short range, 5, and skeet, with a spring that clicks when you are at the set point. Part of the cool factor for me is that is a representation of local history. I live 2.5 miles from where the plant was, and I graduated from the HS in the village.

Kessler only made shotguns for three years, and they only made 3 models. The model 28 bolt action with a detatchable 2 round box magazine, and a fixed choke. The model 30 C with an internal 2 round magazine, and the adjustable Komp-Choke. And the model 50 Levermatic lever action with an internal 2 round magazine, and a fixed choke. They were only available in 12, 16, and 20 gauge, with a total production run of 750,000 shotguns. 75,000 were the model 50 (guess which one I am looking to aquire). Before that, they were an airgun manufacturer, and they also had a line of pellets, targets, and crossbows.

I am always looking to learn more about the company. If anyone knows something I have not included here, please feel free to post it so we can all learn a little more about this company. I would definitly appreciate it. The town historian has almost no information on Kessler arms, and I am trying to gather some more information for him. His grandfather worked at the plant, but alziemers has claimed his memory. Please help me help him. Thank you.

I was going to suggest finding the families of the corporate officers and asking to visit them to discuss if u r presentable. Some may still be alive so hurry. There's a booklet to be published in it too...

Hocka. Good advice. I have been trying to locate some of the families, but most who know are dead or have left the area. All this talk of an economic depresion on the news, hate to tell them, Western NY has been in one for close to 25 years! Long story short, the mass exodus of the late ;80s is why I posted this. Maybe one of their kids will see it , and remember dad's old job. Kind of a shot in the dark, but you never know. Thanks for the suggestion.

The far away picture reminds me of the 20GA shotgun I have.

Not sure why my pictures didn't attach.

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Sirhc, I also have one of thse. It is a Mossberg 185ka or a variant thereof. The first shotgun I ever fired was one of these. Mossberg made several of them for the hardware stores back in the 40s to the 60s. My dad had an old Western Field model when he was a teen.

Mine is a "B". My grandfather bought it brand new for my dad in 1955 when he was 12. He gave it to me when I was about the same age. It also was my first shotgun that I shot. I took my first deer with it when I was about 15 or 16.

I still have the one dad and I both got our first deer with, An old Mossberg 185 d (interchangealbe chokes instead of the C-Lect choke) with a Redding peep sight added to the receiver. Not going to say it is super accurate with slugs, but I can cut a beer bottle off a fence post at 50 yards with it. A big part of that is how dad trained me. In order to hunt deer, I had to be able to put 5 slugs into a paper pie plate at 70 yards. With that shotgun, I ahd that down within the first 3 attempts. IMHO, you just can't beat those old bolt action shotguns for big game hunting.