A fellow is interested in selling this. I have no idea what its history is or what it might be worth. It looks interesting. Any input would be appreciated. Here is a photo and a link to a photo album.

Thanks.

Allan



http://s396.photobucket.com/albums/pp48/Vol423/Westley%20Richards%20Falling%20Block/

This is a Deeley and Edge action. also known as the Westley-Richards Sliding-Block Rifle. This action is discussed in The Gun And Its Development by WW Greener, p.715. Here is the entire text:

"The Westley-Richards Sliding-Block Rifle

This breech-action, the joint production of Messrs. Deeley and Edge, has been, and is, extensively used in match rifles, for which type of arm it is well suited, although originally intended for a military weapon.

The mechanism consists of a vertically-sliding breech-block, which contains the tumbler, main-spring, and other lock work. The guard and lever are in one, and are pivoted to the body of the action, beneath the barrel. By depressing the guard the breech-block descends, as in the Henry carbine, the hammer - or rather tumbler - cocked, and the cartridge extracted.

It possesses a signal advantage over the Martini and Swinburn by allowing the barrel to be cleaned from the breech - certainly always a convenience, and a desideratum in match rifles."

Thanks for the input. My gunsmith says that the gun was rebarreled outside of Britain as there are no British proof marks and the barrel style is not British. He also thinks it was restocked. If that is true, would anyone hazard a guess on value?

I have a hard time putting a value on it, even just a personal value on it, when I don't know the caliber. But assuming it is in some sort of deer-elk like caliber (9.3x74 R or a .450 caliber) I, personally, would be thinking $3k give or take a little. If in a rimless cartridge, a little less. In a roe deer/ small whitetail caliber, for me, it would be quite a bit less. If a .22 rimfire then a bit more in line with the rimmed deer/elk calibers.

But that will tell you more about me than about the rifle.

I'd say 3-4k. I also say restocked and barreled.

Its defitiley a re-barrel and almost looks Winchester-eque with the half octagonal half round and wedding-ring transition. From the photos, I agree it has been restocked as well.

I think $3K is fair for this rifle.

OK, if no one else will ask,I will. What caliber is this rifle? Since most agree it has been recently rebarreled, the caliber should be plainly marked.
Mike

I've asked and I can't believe a value can be estimated w/o knowing that it is.

as I see it the value is mostly in the action and case. What caliber would make it worth less than 3k? none that I can think of. Same goes the other way. No matter how nice the caliber, its worth top end of about 4k in my mind.

To me, anything in the .25-20, 32-20 etc. are not very interesting in a rifle of that type. As I said above in deer calibers it is a lot more valuable in my opinion and it would have a greater pool of prospective buyers. I'm a shooter/hunter so caliber matters a whole bunch.

I'm a hunter/shooter myself, but I'm also a custom builder and in my mind, it is the action that holds the value. Just one guys view.

It's a 450 Nitro Express.

Me too.
Regards, Joe

Does anyone else think .450 Nitro Express is too big a cartridge for this action? I went back to Winfer's British Single Shot Rifles Vol 4 and the examples there are all blackpowder cartridges ... .450 No.1, .577/450 Martini, .450 No.2 Musket. .500/450 No.1 Express, etc ...

yes I do, but loaded to bpe specs or even nitro for black it would be fine.

Someone named Axtell rebarreled it.

Axtell made 1877 Sharps replicas. Not really very well. I know, I have one. Barreling was an issue.

Pity - a fine britsh rifle that has been 'americanized' - making it a bit of a bastard. The underlever action is the early style, the later ones had a sidelever.

I would agree it has been re-barreled and restocked outside of Great Britain. As to value, well the action is worth anything between US$ 1500.00 to US$ 2,500.00 depending on condition, (not always to be seen in photographs). Ebony forend tips of that style are seldom seen on British made rifles.

Harry.

Unless you can find a customer that really likes the rifle in it's present condition,,to me it's a great action to build/restore the rifle to it's original form and nothing else.

The case they seem very proud of in the pics, and I don't know what the value of that would be to collectors. I'm not one.

The action if in good mechanical condition is probably a $1500 item to me w/o seeing it first hand. Looks polished and buffed out on the outside,,not that really tells you anything about the inner workings.
Hard to think of a classier single shot action/rifle to put time and labor into.

The deal didn't pan out, because the man just had too much money in the Westley. However, indirectly it led me to a smokeless powder Hepburn with a 30" Remington barrel in .30-40 Krag. The rifle has a spirit level front sight but no other sights on the barrel. There are filled holes in the heel of the shotgun butt where a back action sight was installed at one time. From the barrel marking, "Remington Arms Ilion, N.Y. USA", it appears to have been rebarreled by Remington. Now I need to find a No 3 Lyman sight to mount on the tang.