doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Spare parts from early stock/actions/forends

Parabola in a separate line states he bought a Reilly/Greener Facile Princeps action/stock/forend from Southams for £2 minimum bid.

A few weeks ago I was visiting Gunter Pfommer down in Rocky Mount, Virginia just east of the Blue Ridge from Roanoke. While Gunter was checking out my 16 gauge he showed me an 1890's Purdey Sidelock SxS he was trying to fix. One of the mainsprings controlling the right-side hammer had broken. He had started to make a spring himself but then ran out of gas. . .and besides though he had trained at Ferlach in making springs. . he didn't much like it. He showed me the action before the owner arrived commenting that the viability of the whole gun depended on one specific hair-clip "V" spring hand-crafted individually specifically for that gun by one tradesman. I left while the owner and Gunter were still discussing the problem.

Which brings us back to the issue of Stock/action/forends available at auctions in UK for almost nothing. Might it be worthwhile to stockpile these? A spring from one of them might be more easily fitted in such a case than trying to make a new one? And are these subject to the same onerous UK export rules as antique firearms or can they be sent by mail or courier?

Good post. I bought a Henry Atkin spring opener years ago. The second time I was shooting it the same left lock cocking spring broke. Now that Atkin spring opener is the same principle as the Purdey. At that time I posted here on the forum as my local smith could not make that spring. That spring has a small roller at the top. That is why is is so unique.
A guy named Stephen Hutten responded to me via this forum and said he could make me one. He was a former actioner from Churchill I believe. It took him awhile but he got it done. He told me then he would never make another one.
Also, I went up to Gunter's shop a few years ago to take a gun. When I arrived he had a Purdey strown out on the bench. When I asked him about it I found out it was the same issue I had the time with the Atkin.
In a frustrated voice he said to me " See this spring, if it breaks throw the whole gun away".
When I went back to pick my gun up which just happened to be a Purdey as well I did not see the Purdey he had that day on the bench so I just presumed he had fixed it.
At the time my Atkin broke I believe there were only four people on the east coast that would fix it.

Stock, action and fore ends are just as costly and require the same paperwork as a regular gun. I buy spring blanks in the UK for exactly that purpose and stock a large quantity. Purdey mainsprings are a whole different animal than your average V spring.

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Southam's just liquidated the Wm. Evans gunmaking shop, I picked up a small box of rifle building parts for pennies on the dollar. They had quite a bit of other stuff that I didn't need or bid on.

Some days, a box lock non ejector with double triggers seems to make a lot of sense.

George Hoenig never considered either single triggers, or, ejectors on his superb rotating breech doubles. He said he didn’t want to repair them anymore.

Best,
Ted

This is an issue that many people, in many business applications, have been doing quietly for a long time. It's not always the scarcity of the parts that drives it. Sometimes it is the COST of the new parts that fuels "buying for parts".

I have done so in the farming business numerous times by buying a used piece of equipment at auction for little money, then using parts from it for many years. It's not a new concept, it's just common sense sometimes.

BTW, I and many others don't agree with Hoenig's anathema on ejectors. I have desired and used them hard for many years with precious little issues. A quick scanning of my using double guns yields a total of over twenty with ejectors. Over my lifetime with them I have had exactly two issues with ejectors that needed repairs. I performed the repairs both times myself. IMO, it's an overblown issue that's sometimes maximized to sell non-ejector guns to the uninformed. However, I've got zero problems with anyone who, for some reason I don't comprehend, just doesn't like them.

The problem is that most of these stock and action guns were “bench made” and produced without regard to interchangeability.

Whilst you can interchange barrels on a Valmet or a B. Rizzini, and within reason cannibalise parts on a modern machine made gun it becomes much more problematical with guns made in the late Victorian era.

Is there anyone in the USA even buying guns for parts?

many butchers out there...

I sold my first Purdey for a similar reason. Broken mainspring and over a 1 year and half to replace. I love the Purdey action but not only is the mainspring difficult to replace but I was told by an experienced gunsmith that figuring out what is not working right is difficult as it can be the swivel, compressor, kicker, rod that runs through action etc.

So these Purdeys are junk, right?