If it has to be a sidelock then look at the designs of William Baker, the man who invented the Lancaster 12/20, the Baker ejector and many other simple and rugged actions. His sidelock OU incorporates simple locks, the load bearing shoulders later incorporated in the Beretta SO line, and the Kersten fastener.
The English OU is unnecessarily complex because when it was developed for mild steel action bodies. All those multiple lockup points are not necessary with decent steels.
I have handled the very best OUs, Boss, Purdey, Woodward,Desenzani, Bossis, Fabbri, Famars etc. Once the novelty wears off none are as impressive as a Perazzi nor as rugged and as easy to service and fix. The Browning is a close second and neither are sidelocks.
OU design to be modern and trouble free needs to address the profile height, the forces direction axis, lock up and robustness. Guns that need to be babied and sent back to the makers annually etc are a pain. The most modern OU design out there is the Swedish Caprinus/Flodma. I would add the Ljutic just because it has managed to by pass the top lever spindle compromise, ie hollowing out the spindle to accomodate the firing pins. THe Ljutic has no top lever and spindle!
So if you can break the sidelock bonds and the "traditional" and "bench made" shackles you might want to look for modern designs that bypass the old problems.
Last edited by Shotgunlover; 03/13/14 06:45 PM.
