TINCANBANDIT's Gunsmithing : Featured Gun: The Snake Charmer Shotgun

This month's featured gun is the Snake Charmer shotgun

The Snake Charmer is a .410 caliber, single shot, break open, shotgun made from stainless steel with a plastic stock.

The story begins with Dallas Texas native Homer "Jeff" Koon. He wanted to make an handy and affordable shotgun for dispatching poisonous snakes common in the south. Of course the gun would need to be rust resistant to prevent damage from the humid weather or the occasional drop in the swamp.....

You may know the name Koon as the founder of several gun companies including Ranger Arms, Alpha Arms and Omega Arms, he is perhaps most famous for a very high end hunting rifle called the "Omega".

After building 1000 Omega rifles, he sold the rights to an Aerospace company called Hi-Shear.

Very few of the Hi-Shear Omega rifles were built before production was shut down. Below is a picture where Koon is presenting the first three Omega rifles built under the Hi-Shear name to (L to R) Herb Klein of Hi-Shear, Actor John Wayne and Texas Governor John Connolly

When it was clear the Omega rifle had no future Koon rebooted and started H. Koon inc. sometime in the late 1970s.

He hoped to build his lightweight, compact, take-down shotgun that could be used by anyone. This included left-handers, facilitated by its ambidextrous design.

Its short length of pull also made it easy to manage for young shooters and women, while at the same time allowing larger framed shooters to shoot the firearm one handed.

Stats:
Action: Single action, single shot, break open, external hammer
Caliber: .410 (2 3/4" & 3") Shotgun
Width: 1 1/4" at the receiver, 1 1/2" at the wrist of stock
Length: 28 5/8"
Barrel Length: 18 1/4"
Length of Pull: 9 1/2"
Weight: 3.4 lbs
Finish: Satin stainless steel & black plastic

The trigger pull is stiff, I measured the pull on my Father's Snake Charmer II and it just exceeded the 8lb limit on my trigger pull gauge, I would guess it is in the 9-10 lb range.

The rear of the stock held 4 additional shells

The guns were originally shipped with the barrel/forearm assembly separated from the receiver/butt stock, in a white box with the Snake Charmer logo

Originally the manufacturing took place in this building at 2640 Northhaven suite 101 Dallas, Texas (funny how the name "haven" comes up in a lot of gun company factory addresses).

The roll mark from a Dallas built Snake Charmer

A few years after starting H. Koon inc., Mr. Koon sold the rights to Sporting Arms Manufacturing of Dallas, Texas. The new guns featured a manual safety switch which blocked the hammer when activated. The new gun was called the Snake Charmer II.

Sporting Arms Inc. eventually moved production to Littlefield, Texas (near Lubbock).

The factory was located at 801 Hall Ave in Littlefield, the building appears to be empty now

In addition to the safety, the boxes also changed, the guns were shipped in one piece in a longer box

Around this time two new options/models were added, One was called the "Night Charmer" it included a flashlight built into the forend.

The other was called the "Field Gun" it featured a full length stock (with longer length of pull and no thumb hole) and a 24" barrel, the option must not have been very popular, as I could only find one reference to it online.

Fast forward a few more years and the operation was sold again to a French Company called Verney-Carron SA who is a purveyor of high end shotguns, located in Saint Etienne, France.
V.B.E. Inc located in Clay Center, Kansas was contracted to manufacture the guns.

in 2009 Verney-Carron closed the U.S. production and the most recent Snake Charmers were built in Turkey and were imported via E.A.A. (European American Armory)

At some point production ended, the Snake Charmer II is not currently listed in Verney-Carron's catalog

Both H&R 1871 and Rossi produce(d) similar models

The H&R/NEF Tamer

The Rossi Tuffy

My Father purchased this gently used Snake Charmer II about 15 years ago at a local gun store for less than $100.

The gun is a Snake Charmer II built in Littlefield by Sporting Arms Inc.

The barrel release resides in the front of the plastic trigger guard, the safety is a simple hammer block, engaged by turning a dial on the right side of the receiver.