doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Are all post 1880 Purdeys............

built on the Beesley action?
Or did they continue to use other actions in any significant quantity after the Revelation?

Pete

Nope.

After they adopted the Beesley action, Purdey also made Best-quality sidelock hammerless shotguns on Rogers-patent actions. The Rogers is a standard-style action that cocks when the bbls drop. It is not a self opener.

W.C. Scott and Webley & Scott used this action on their hammerless sidelocks. I believe Purdey bought their Roger actions in the white from Scott and finished them off in their London factory.

Of course, Purdey also made hammerguns - bar action, island locks - well after 1880.

After 1880, Purdey also made boxlocks on A& D actions and B & C quality sidelock hammerless shotguns on non-Beesley actions. These lower grade guns were made into the 1920s.

Here's a pic of one:

http://www.doublegunshop.com/boston/bs_purdey-10488_0103.jpg

(BTW: that's not a Best-quality gun, regardless of what the dealer claims.)

Say hello to Ginger and Mary Ann for me.

OWD

My AyAs look a lot better :-)!!

JC(AL)

It's the W & R Model (Webley & Rogers). Prior to the merger, these came from Webley, not Scott.

Examining the Purdey book, I can't find the side lever hammerless action like the gun sold at the recent auction by Greg Martin Auctions. It was some gun, the prettiest Purdey I have ever seen but with issues of "fooled with". I don't remember how much it sold for.

A hammerless Purdey, is not a Purdey, without the Beesley action.

LG - Wrong! If Purdey put their name on it, then it is a Purdey. "Tharin" lies the issue with being careful what you are willing to put your brand name on; all those letter grade and BLE Purdeys are Purdeys. Boss didn't do it (they used Robertson's name for this 'lil experiment). H&H, Purdey, and Woodward got away with it. Some other one time great names didn't get away with it - Grant, Atkin and Beesley come to mind. For the other end of the envelope, consider that Belgium sullied the entire country name with low end production. An individual gun owner may fool himself with a romanticized view of a maker's name. However, the market has a wide and long memory. The collective look at everything out there with a name on it is different than the look at one or a few specimen with one name on them.

Correction. The Greg Martin Purdey was an under lever (petite push forward) hammerless. Anyone know what variation this was and how many they may have made? It is serial number 11,288, sold for $8512.50. The absense of a top lever and the tiny little push lever made it the most graceful Purdey I have seen and also very easy to operate. Maybe I'm missing it in the book, but I have looked pretty thoroughly.

8b - this model comes on the market from time to time, but is scarce compared to top lever guns. I'm not sure of patents, but it is similar in appearance and function to the Woodward "The Automatic" UL model (a pair of restocked non-ejectors of 1885 production sold at Bonham's this week for about $11,000).

I have one 12 bore, 27" barrels, 14 1/2" LOP Purdey UL non-ejector in the MOI database: 6# 12 oz, 4 5/8" balance to front trigger, unmounted swing of 1.34, mounted swing of 6.66, and half weight radius of 9.59. This is well within the game gun handling envelope. I recall the gun had very fancy carved leaf and vine fences.

Eightbore - check plate #34 in the Purdey book. I think that's the same design. I believe it's an Adams-patent action. I've seen a handful of these.

The price that GM Auction got for their's was pretty high considering the overall condition of the gun. They had that gun at Vintagers and I checked it out. It looked OK - but not that OK.

Before Purdey went with the Beesley, they must have experimented with a handful of different hammerless actions. I've seen a couple of different ones, including the one noted above. I'll try and find some pics of them.

.400NE - I don't think I understand your comment. Rogers patented his action in 1881 or 1882. I don't think he had any affiliation with Webley. Did he?

I know Webley & Scott made some sidelocks called W & R (Webley & Rogers), but I thought this was well after the Scott - Webley merger. Did Webley make sidelocks on the Rogers action before the merger?

Before this Scott - Webley merger, and post 1880, I don't know if Purdey used any others actions on their sub-grade guns other than the A&D. I have some info on that Purdey that I posted earlier in this string and I'll have to look it up.

OWD