C-man, seems to me how good your 1930 gun is might depend on how well Atkin was able to rebuild its work force after 1918. Or, if they didn't have sufficient skilled workers in house, whether they would have gone to "the trade" to fill any holes they might have had among their own workers. The British gun trade, in general, was certainly in better shape in 1905 than in 1930 (when there was also the Depression with which to contend). But you will have a gun that was built under more modern rules of proof. Post-WWII was even worse, for a lot of reasons. The British economy was quite slow to recover, for one thing.
But it seems to me an Atkin made in 1930 wouldn't have had any less handwork than one made in 1905. So much would depend on the skills of the individual workers involved, in both cases.
Larry --
I believe that Atkin made guns based on the Purdey version of the Beesley action - a self (spring) opener. But in 1909 they had a model with several improvements in the function of the ejectors and the smoothness of cocking (cocks the tumblers on closing). This is the basic action that they continued with right up to their merger with Grant and Lang in 1960 (I think it was 1960). They are still made by Atkin, Grant and Lang on special order, but I do not know how much of the current work is done in house.
It may well be that the Aktins shop force was mainly too old to participate in WWI, but information is fairly scarce. In my research I did dig up information on specialist workers to the trade - barrel makers, mainly, since I started this quest to get a set of 20 CL barrels made for my 16 bore Harkom. Decided to buy a lightweight 12 instead. Always wanted an Atkin gun since I read so much praise for them in English gun books. Guess I'll find out for myself how good they are...
