20 gauge Boss #7788 with 17" barrels

Here’s its description from the catalog:

A fine and highly unusual 20-bore (3in) single-trigger assisted-opening round-bodied sidelock ejector gun by Boss & Co., no. 7788

This gun was one of a trio of 17″ Boss 20 gauges made for beer magnate A.E. Guinness. Round body, Boss twenty gauge side-by-sides are pretty rare, especially with original 3″ chambers. I bet the made fewer than 10.

I have no idea why A.E. Guinness. wanted such short barrels. You have to wonder how they handle. Mr Guiness must have used them for driven game. I can’t think of any other reason for ordering a trio.

The description in Bonham’s catalog does say that the stock was originally about 13 3/4″ inches long. Perhaps Mr Guiness was a small man? Or maybe he was tipsy on the family’s product when he placed the order?

The rest of the sale seemed pretty soft, with a lot of guns not selling. You can see the entire catalog online here.

J. Purdey 12 gauge hammer shotgun #6597

Mr Leigh’s new guns were breechloading pinfires. Breechloaders had come a long way since appearing in Britain at the Great Exhibition of 1851. Scorned back then, serious shooters were giving up their percussion guns for breechloading pinfires by 1860.

The same year Mr Leigh received his guns, H. R. H. Prince Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, received a 12 gauge Westley Richards pinfire like this for his 22nd birthday. Royal approval had arrived.

Unfortunately, the hammer was about to fall on pinfires.  In 1865, J. Purdey built their first centerfire breechloading shotgun. By 1870, orders for pinfires had almost dried up. As pinfires fell from favor, owners converted them to centerfires. It looks like this is what Mr Leigh did to #6597.

A lot of work went into the conversion–adding metal, softening, reworking and recoloring the action, modifying the barrels and hammers, etc. Whoever did the conversion on J. Purdey #6597 was a real pro. Look at how crisp the metal-to-metal & wood-to-metal fit is and how everything looks right. Very nice.

The work was probably in England, maybe by Purdeys, and definitely a while ago. Purdey used pinfire-style actions and hammers like this on centerfires until at least 1867. So if I had to guess when #6597 was converted, I would say in the 1870s.

A few things give the pinfire-to-centerfire conversion away. We’ll talk about two here and leave the rest for the next post.

1. The most obvious are these little curls of engraving on the barrels. They hide seams from the metal fitted into the holes from the original pinfire system. You can see how these holes looked on this Purdey pinfire.

Pinfire catridge loaded into the gun like this and they needed those little divets in the barrels to seat the “pin” that struck the primer inside the shell.

2. Next is the action on #6597. It’s missing a radius. On muzzleloaders, firing drives the barrels back and into the fences and stock. Break-open breechloaders presented different pressures, forces and problems for makers. On a break-open breechloaders, the cartridges drive back into the face of the action. This drives the hinge pin into the hook on the barrels and flexes the action at the juncture of the flats and face. When this juncture is square, this force concentrates and can crack the action.

With pinfires, this wasn’t a problem. Pinfires didn’t produce enough force to damage the action. Centerfires did. Gunmakers recognized this and developed what’s called the radius. The radius modifies the perpendicular, flat-to-face juncture with a slight curve or forty-five degree angle. You can see one here and another here. This little modification spreads out the forces generated by firing. No more cracked actions (or at least far fewer). So when you see a centerfire hammergun without a radius, you’re usually looking at a converted pinfire.

Stay tuned for the rest of the story in my next post about this gun…

*Calculations based on per-capita GDP. Learn more here.

You can read more about the evolution of the breechoader in this excerpt from Micheal McIntosh’s book Best Guns.

It’s about suburbanites trying to teach their dogs to hunt. Pretty funny, but at least people are out there with their dogs, trying to do what the dog’s ancestors were bred to do.

BTW: if anyone out there hunts rabbits with a pack of basset hounds, I would love to check it out. I’ve hunted hares over beagles and it was a fantastic time.

Jessica Kourkounis for The New York Times

16g Parker VH shotgun

The seller is saying it’s refinished. But I don’t know. The barrels look redone. But look at the wood. If that wood is redone, that’s some great work. I’ve asked a few folks about this gun and they’re undecided.

What do you think? Take a look at all the pics and let me know.

Horst Auctions, Ephrata, PA

There a few nice Lefever, Ithaca, L.C. Smith, and A.H. Fox side-by-side shotguns there. Looks like a lot of Winchester Model 12s, too.

See this detailed list of the guns, plus links to pics.

Take a look at Lot #49, this very clean looking 16g A.H. Fox double barrel.

Rising Bite on a 12 gauge Boss Over/Under

The rising bite you can see in this picture does not exist – at least not according to Boss. The gun is a 12 gauge Boss Over-and-Under. It’s a 1930s era gun, made for 3″ shells and heavy loads.

Even though there are at least two other Boss Over/Unders with the same type of rising bite, there’s no information this feature in Boss’ records. No patents were ever issued for it, either.

Rigby made the rising-bite action famous. They used them on a number of their Best-quality double barrel shotguns and rifles, especially on ones made before the first World War. You can see some examples of how the Rigby-style rising bite works here and here.

On the Boss, the top extension on the rib doesn’t have the horseshoe-style gap you can see in the Rigby. Instead, the extension on the Boss has a gap on its underside. The locking bite rises up into this gap as the gun is closed.

W. & C. Scott 10 gauge double barrel shotgun

Redding Auction Service in Gettysburg, PA, has a ton of nice side-by-side shotguns coming up this Sunday, June 6. There are also some real crisp Winchester and Marlin rifles. Nice stuff.

The auction begins at 9am. For more info go here or call them at 717-334-6941.

Some of double barrels shotguns at this auction:

-Nichols & Lefever 10g hammergun

-Dangerfield & Lefever 10g percussion conversion

-Parkers, including a could DHs and some hammerguns

-Real crisp L.C. Smiths, including a Long Range gun and nice Trap grade hammergun

-Foxes, including a nice 16 gauge Sterlingworth

-W& C Scott 10 gauge hammerless shotgun

-Hammerguns by P. Webley, W & C Scott, and other makers

-Plus LOTS of other nice looking doubles

Nichols & Lefever 10 gauge double-barrel shotgun

Dangerfield & Lefever 10g Percussion Conversion

20 gauge A.H. Fox C-grade shotgun

This rare A. H. Fox 20 gauge side-by-side shotgun is on Auction Arms right now. The auction ends on 06/01/2010 at 11:05:06 and there’s no reserve. Too bad the seller took such crummy pics.

This double barrel looks like an early C grade side-by-side shotgun. With 30″ barrels, this could be a real nice gun. The engraving is the first style C and Fox used those pull-off forends on early graded smallbores. I’ve seen others with them.

The wood is pretty worn, and it’s awfully plain for a C, but it looks unmessed with. The straight grips looks original too. Those barrels may have been reblued. Compared to the rest of the gun, they look real nice. The checkering on the butt stock is a little odd. It may be a bad picture, or because it’s an early gun. Compare it to the checkering on this 16 gauge C grade to see what I mean. This may be because this is a real early smallbore.

Fox introduced 16 gauges and 20 gauges in 1912. They had been making 12 gauge side-by-sides since 1906. Fox made 366 20-gauge C grades in Philadelphia and 47 in Utica. That means this is one of 413 C-grade 20 gauge guns.

Go page 135 in Michael McIntosh’s excellent book  to read all about. Fox’s smallbores . You can buy  McIntosh’s book here: A.H. Fox: The Finest Gun in the World. I recommend it.

I also suggest checking out the A.H. Fox collector’s site. There’s a ton of great info there.

Harley Parlin, Boot Hill Gun Cases

Harley owned Boot Hill Case Company. He was a kind, generous man, a meticulous craftsman and all around great guy.

I wish I had known him well. We met several years ago when one of my cases needed work and friends suggested him. Instead of shipping the case, I drove it up to his house. I’m glad I did.

Harley and his wife Kit lived in a farmhouse in western Maine. It was winter and especially cold when I arrived. Handshakes were reserved for once I was inside and the door shut. Harley looked like a page out of an old L.L Bean catalog, dressed in khaki pants and a faded green chamois shirt. Trim and enthusiastic, I would have guessed he was 52 or 53. Actually, he was around 60.

His shop was in the basement. There were big machines on the floor–a table saw, a sander, a drill press. Rolls of leather were stacked on shelves in a corner. Punches, awls and dozens of wooden-handled tools filled racks around a table. The shop looked ready for inspection and  I had a feeling it always looked this way.

Harley spent years in Maine’s shoe-making industry and used this knowledge of leather craft to start Boot Hill. What he didn’t know about vintage cases he figured out through ingenuity, intelligence and perseverance.

Thanks to his superb work, he thrived. My case was typical. A oak gun case made in Britain around 1866, it was lined with red wool baize and the original maker’s label was glued in the lid. All it needed was a little fixing up and some stabilizing. A lot of people could have done the work. Harley was going to do it because he would do it right.

Harley was proud of his work and as we talked, he showed me pictures of his other projects. The motor-style case he made from scratch for this Purdey 3-barrel set was impressive. The skill and craftsmanship that went into making it were as stunning as the gun.

I headed up to Harley’s shop a few more times over the next few years. Harley always took the time to show me what went into his trade – from how an oak-and-leather gun case is made to the basics of stitching and tooling. I appreciated it a great deal.

One evening we went fly-fishing on a boulder clogged river near his home. I forgot my glasses back in my truck and I remember squinting hard to spot rises near my bobbing fly. I fumbled, tangled a bunch of casts, missed some strikes. Harley caught some brook trout, mostly small ones, none longer than a revolver. We had a good time.

I saw Harley one more time. I don’t remember why I headed back to his shop. Whatever the reason, it was really just an excuse to spend some time with Harley and his craft.

Goodbye my friend. You’re missed a great deal.

Parker Grade 3 Hammergun

The gun has two set of barrels, 28″ and 30″. The finish on the gun looks pretty original. With everyone heading down to the Southern this weekend, heading to this auction may be your chance to get a good deal on cool Parker hammergun.

The mid- to upper-grade Parker hammerguns are beautiful guns. You can see more examples of them is you go to the Parker Gun Collector Association’s website. Go to the left and click on Parker Grades. Under each of the grades that come up, click on the buttons that say Top Lever Pictures. Great stuff there.