pinfire | Dogs and Doubles

See this week’s 5 doubles you don’t want to miss …

May 28, 2023May 27, 2023 by Gregg

RIGBY 577/500 BPE- UNBELIEVABLE COND- MINT BORES- 95% ORIG CASE COLORS- MECHANICALLY APPEARS UNFIRED- 60% ENGRAVING- REBOUNDING LOCKS- SOLID as NEW: #16029, John Rigby & Co. Dublin & London: Listed With a Consecutive #16030 500/450: A Rigby Back Action Rebounding Hammer Jones Action Underlever 577/500 Black Powder Express Double Rifle with Outstanding Bore Condition, Made in 1889, 26″ Steel Extractor barrels, The barrels are marked “Case W. R. No. 2 Powder 132 Grains – Cannelured Bullet 400 Grains”, Full length rib with 1 standing & 1 folding platinum lined rear sights, Proofed in London, Rebounding locks, Carved percussion fences, Swing lever forend release, Horn grip cap, Sling eyes, 14 3/4″ LOP over a full face checkered steel buttplate, 10 lbs., Very nice wood with nice color & contrast, The wood is as stout both in the butt and forend as the day it was made; 60% coverage of period scroll engraving that remains sharp and crisp that includes the hammers, top strap, opening lever, trigger guard and forend, This superb conditioned classic has 95% absolute original case colors remaining, The barrels retain an honest 90% original black, The buttstock and forend have been professionally re-oiled, Another very strong point to this gun is the bores look exactly like the day it left Rigby and have the appearance as being brand new, Every screw is engraved and they all remain at 98%, The breech face has 100% case colors remaining, The nose of the strikers still have 100% of the heat blue, The retainer nuts for the strikers still have 100% heat blue, This gun honestly appears that it could be unfired. Here is first rate quality, style, grace, workmanship, handling, and Rigby romance from a great period at the pinnacle of sporting guns in the last years of the 19th century. As many of you know, I have seen my fair share of period black powder express double rifles but not many are as mechanically stout as this piece with bores that look like they did in 1889 and the day it walked out of Rigby. This gun has a consecutive numbered, #16030, 500/450 BPE with bores that are Excellent Plus and a super piece of wood. Price: $15,750

Arrieta SLE 28ga 2-3/4″Shell 29″bbl SxS Shotgun: A lovely Arrieta SLE 28ga side-by-side shotgun. This shotgun features a sidelock round-action Holland-type action from Arrieta, with full coverage engraving, deep blue barrels and checkered walnut stock and forend. The shotgun is in excellent working condition with brilliant bores, tight barrels, perfect ejection and only minor finish wear in small areas. This is a stunning little bird gun! Model: SLE Serial Number: 570320807 Chambers: 2-3/4 Ejectors: Auto Triggers: Double Stock Comb: 1-1/2″ Stock Heel: 2-1/4″ Stock Cast: 1/8″ Cast Off Butt Pad: Rubber LOP: 14-1/4 Weight: 6lbs Choke Left: Mod Choke Right: IC Engraving: Full Coverage Scroll Case: No Item Location: Orvis Pursell Farms Price: $6,500

CSMC RBL 28ga SxS Boxlock Shotgun: Connecticut Shotgun Manufacturing Company: RBL-28 Reserve 28 gauge 2-3/4″ chambers 28″ Barrels Choked IC/MOD Gold plated double triggers Automatic ejectors English grip stock Splinter forearm Engraved with scrollwork and Pointing dogs Fitted Canvas Case with all the accessories LOP: 14-1/4″ to Front 13-1/4″ to back DAC: 1-1/2″ DAH: 2-1/2″ Cast for RH Weight: 5.4 Lbs Price: $4,395

J. Beattie Pinfire Double rifle – Damascus Barrels – Antique Extremely Rare Pinfire Double Rifle: Here is a very beautiful Pin Fire double rifle made by J. Beattie. It has fine detailed english style engraving all over the action, hammers, and trigger guard. It has a comfortable english style stock and comes up nicely. The barrel is 26 inches and is made of damascus steel and has leaf sights engraved with gold marked at 100, 150 and 200 yards. The gun is in very good shape for its age and opens smoothly and releases the hammers as it should. The bore condition is excellent and is about .43 caliber but we didn’t chamber cast it so we not sure exactly. Thanks for looking! Price: $3,195

Beretta Orvis Uplander 20ga 26″/28″ 2 Barrel Set O/U Shotgun: Beretta Orvis Uplander 20ga over-under shotgun. This shotgun includes two barrels, one original 26″ fixed choke barrel, and one newer Onyx-finished 28″ barrel with multi chokes. Both barrels are fit properly to the receiver. The gun is in great overall condition with some minor wear, but perfectly functional with great bores. A perfect field setup! Chambers: 3″ Ejectors: Auto Triggers: SST Stock Comb: 1-3/8 Stock Heel: 2-1/4 LOP: 14-1/2 Weight: 6lbs Price: $3,000

FYI: DogsandDoubles.com is a not a gun dealer. We do not sell firearms. We do not have an FFL. The guns you see listed here are from Gunsinternational.com, a site DogsandDoubles.com is not affiliated with in any way. The accuracy of these listings from Gunsinternational.com has not been verified by Dogs and Doubles. All information and images have been provided by the sellers. Buyers are responsible for verifying the physical condition and specifications of the listed items. Dogs and Doubles suggests you and a qualified gunsmith physically inspect an item before purchasing.

Any statements made on DogsandDoubles.com regarding a firearm’s condition, originality, safety, value, or suitability to use are opinions only. These statements have not been verified. They are not guaranteed to be accurate or correct in any way.

Auction Alert: a stunning Italian pinfire shotgun…

November 13, 2012November 12, 2012 by Gregg

Stunning Italian pinfire shotgun by Izzo

I’ve seen a lot of Italian shotguns – from basic Berettas to top-of-the-line O/Us and side-by-sides by Bosis and F.lli Rizzini. But almost all of these have been post WW2 shotguns. For some reason, I’ve seen very few Italian shotguns from the first half of the 20th century or the 19th century.

That’s why this 19th century double barrel pinfire shotgun by Alfonso Izzo caught my eye. Not only is it an antique, but it looks like it’s in stunning original condition. Just look at the color on the action and the browning on the damascus barrels — that’s all original. So is the finish on the wood. And check out the engraving – it’s look very English to me. In its day, this shotgun must have been the finest the maker could produce. Today its retains that aura that quality always has.

The pinfire system was one of the first successful breechloading designs. It came into use around 1855 and lasted just a handful of years. Centerfire breechloaders came onto the market about 1865 and withing a few years they had killed off the pinfires.

This shotgun also uses a Jones-style underlever, first patented in 1859. The Jones underlever would go on to be one of the most successful actions ever created. Shotguns and rifles were built on it right into the 20th century.

A converted Purdey pinfire — Part 1…

July 29, 2010 by Gregg

It was 1863. The year kicked off with the world’s first underground railway opening in London. Six months later, General Robert E. Lee led Confederate troops into the Battle of Gettysburg. And in November, Mr Thomas Leigh took delivery of this J. Purdey hammergun, #6597. It was one of a pair of 10 gauges with 32″ Damascus barrels. The cost for both: £126 (£93,600 today*). Griffin and Howe has it on their site for…$35,000!?

Action on J. Purdey shotgun #6597 — 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.