doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Boswell hammergun question

I have a friend who was gifted a Charles Boswell, 12 ga. cased hammergun some 20 years ago. He attempted to reload for it without following my advice about using certain powders and cases and blew a chamber out one whole side, ruining the barrels. Is there any way to remedy this unfortunate situation short of having new barrels made by Batha? It is a very nice condition gun but not worth the cost of a new barrel set, IMO. He's never going to do anything with it and I think I could buy it for a song if there is a viable option.

Should I call and talk with Chris about it? Or, has anyone else ever dealt with this type issue in another way?

Thanks, Stan

If only one tube is damaged I think you can have just that tube replaced. Batha will have contacts in the trade and will know who to send it to. If it's a high grade gun it would probably be worth repairing. What really matters is whether it's worth it to you. I personally don't worry about resale value of doubles. The value to me is in their use.

All barrel people in the USA who can tube a gun are years behind. If Batha can get the gun to the UK and back, that is what I would do. Let us know how you do with Batha because I have tube/sleeve jobs sitting in the gun room also. Your friend, Murphy

At the Southern a couple weeks ago I spoke with Robert Hosford about a gun with a bulged right barrel. He said he would recommend sleeving both barrels to maintain proper balance, not just the bulged one. He then added good luck finding tubes and someone to do the sleeving.

To sleeve the barrels, the (intact) breech is bored out to act as a monobloc, into which the tube extensions are soldered and the seams TIG welded
If the chamber has burst, the barrels will need to be disassembled then re-fabricated from scratch. The good tube, ribs, top rib extension & lump could likely be used.

This is from Ladbrook & Langton Gunsmiths site

Another person you can talk to is Dan Morgan up in Vermont. He travels to Scotland some times during the year and imports guns. He is also a fantastic gunsmith.
I also have a Joseph Lang & Son pigeon hammer gun with sleeved 32" barrels I am wanting to sell. It is a fantastic pigeon killing machine at eight pounds plus.

Bill Blacker, barrel maker to the English Best Makers can make you a set. If you can get it over there.

Stan; your opinion is correct it is not worth the $16,000.00 that Bill Blacker will charge to make a new set of barrels. I have owned Boswell hammerguns before and few of them were best quality guns. He made great pigeon guns.

There are wonderful buys in best quality hammeguns for sale in the UK now. I just bought an Alfred Lancaster hammergun (1874) from the UK that was formerly the property of the 14th Duke of Hamilton and is in nearly like new condition for way, way less than a new set of barrels.

Hammerguns such as the one I just purchased along with another of the same maker and vintage purchased by my shooting colleague are not going to "pop up" on UK gun dealers websites. You have to know which dealer handles the type of quality gun you are searching for and call him and ask him to find it for you as I did. Hammerguns such as Purdey Island locks; hammerguns with perfect damascus barrels and other best quality guns that are in high demand as well as Dickson round actions now. The hammergun formerly belonging to the Duke of Hamilton is a find of a lifetime and I would have never found it without asking the correct person to look for something like it.


Stephen Howell

Some of the comments concerning sleeving leave me to believe my description was insufficient in explaining what occurred with the gun. This is not a bulge or rupture in the bore. It is a total blowout of one chamber, leaving nothing to use to sleeve a new tube onto. Heretofore, I have always believed that the only option was for a gunmaker to disassemble the barrel set, solder another sound tube in place, and relay the ribs, then blacken it all. That, or find the needle in the haystack set of abandoned barrels that could be refitted to this action. My purpose in the question was to be sure there were no other options that were available.

I do understand, as Stephen rightly pointed out, the cost of having a new set of barrels made would be extremely prohibitive.

I need to get that Boswell off my mind totally, I guess. It just irks me, even some twenty years later, that the owner was such a know-it-all that he loaded the shells with heavy charges of Unique and compression-formed hulls, because "he has plenty of that already on hand". He maintains to this day that a base wad separated from the hull's base and lodged in the bore causing the blow-out on the next shot. No amount of explanation can dissuade him from that belief, even though I know better.

Mike, would you kindly point me in the direction of some good pictures of the Lang which you have for sale?

I think most gunmakers would build a new set of tubes before taking apart the damaged set and fitting a new tube. In my mind, it would be less work to re-barrel both tubes than to do one.