Yes Toby, the barrel debate of the time frame of which you outline is a "Sticky Wicket". And as Lefusil pointed out debate on the stocked to the fences. To my mind however, the time frame of which the hammergun in this discussion was made chopper lump barrels became a definite symbol of what constituted best quality gun.
I for one consider those beautiful H&H Royals of pre-1893 with the semi stepped lockplates best quality guns.
HOWEVER, there is one issue that troubles my mind about the description of this gun and that is the proof marks list "not for ball" which would indicate that the barrels were proofed much earlier than the c.1900 that the seller has listed for the time frame of the gun.
If the gun indeed was built in the time frame of "not for ball", barrel notation(1874-1887) then all my chopper lump barrel comments are for naught and I will discount the Hacket latch issue and the gun is indeed a best quality gun of that time period---- just one more of the "Education" points that gun buyers need to know.
Last edited by bushveld; 01/05/19 08:26 PM.
