doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com A Question On Nomenclature From The inexperienced

Various parts of a firearm are named in what I consider to be logical and descriptive of the part's function or purpose, etc. However, I can see no logical reason why a water table is named that! Someone please explain this to me or suggest a book that includes nomenclature of doubleguns!

woodsrunner38:

Thinking off the cuff, it has some reference to water across, in checking or making the top of table of the action/action flats/watertable.

Dig's "Vintage Guns for the Modern Shot" is a start.

Kind Regards,

Raimey
rse

Here's a pretty good starting point.

http://www.hallowellco.com/abbrevia.htm

Heard all sorts of explanations; architectural derivation, etc. Could also be a datum plane or baseline for measurement as in D.W.L. design waterline in a boat. Just speculation. If it bothers you, call it the action flats. And breech balls aren't "fences" either.

jack

Here's an architectural definition of water table: "A projecting ledge, molding, or stringcourse along the side of a building, designed to throw off rainwater."
And here's a pic that does looks a bit like a SxS receiver pointed down
http://www.stratfordhall.org/architect/water.htm

In reading the definition of fences on the Hallowell site, it appears that calling the "breach balls" "fences" is a complete misnomer as there are no "fences" on the "breach balls" of a hammerless gun, yet there are indeed "breach balls or equivalent on a cap hammergun.

The term "watertable" has been used also in many things other than guns and building architecture. In the machining and fabrication world, as well as airplane manufacture, the term "watertable" is often used to describe a flat surface (sometimes related to a "waterline") as a datum reference that provides a relative angular and dimensional reference for location of other features or components.

Thanks for all of the responses, and an especial thanks for the Hallowell website! Now I understand!

My opinion is that water always seeks it's own level. So if the watertable is level all measurements on the gun can be taken from that point. Good luck.

I'm pretty sure calling those projections fences is a holdover from muzzleloader days when the projections were used to confine some of the flash from the percussion caps. Seems kind of strange for "old Betsy" to have breech balls.

Hello WR38,

Here is another gun dictionary for your reference:
Gun Tec Dictionary

JC