doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Would you buy a London Best with Dovetail barrels?

KDROSS,

The main problem with this gun is the fact of the rebarrel.

I'm certain your search has shown you many guns with new barrels by their maker or others. There is a certain period and certain gunsmiths who are known for making beautiful guns into barrel-heavy redone guns. Others have perfected the process--see, for example, the work done by Atkin, Grant & Lang.

Leaving generalities aside, you will have to look at each gun and decide how it measures up to the standards you've established. From what you describe, this one doesn't pass the smell test.

Personally, if a gun originally had dovetail barrels, a flat back or a through lump, that could be okay by me.

Chopper-lump barrels (called Demi-bloc barrels in Italy) - A method of joining the two separate tubes of a set of barrels where the right-hand half of the pair of lumps under the barrels are forged integrally with the right barrel and the left-hand half of the pair of lumps under the barrels are forged integrally with the left barrel. Chopper-lump barrels can be recognized by the fine joint-line running longitudinally down the center of each lump. This method of jointing barrels is the best because it is the strongest in relation to its weight and because it allows the two barrels to be mounted closest to each other at the breech end, reducing problems regulating the points of aim of the two separate barrels.

What "period" and what "certain gunsmiths" are you making reference to ?

Why do the chamber walls of a dovetail joint need to be thicker than for a chopper lump joint? I don't see that a dovetailed joint would need to be heavier by any significant amount - why do you thing they do?

Why is it that the value of most guns is killed by a rebarrel even if it is a well done job?

"Best Guns" is a social, marketing ploy out of London after the turn of the eighteenth century. Partly and partly a connotation of what the maker and commissioner believed to be best design, materials, and sufficient time allocated for no-compromise workmanship.

The phrase does tend to connote a gun stocked to the fences, chopper lump barrels and no through lumps. I think this suits the definition of "London pattern best gun" more than a general definition. Did you not add "SLE" for a reason, or was that oversight?

Best guns prior to that period were known to not be all of those. Agree - even best boxlocks.

This is well-documented for Boss, Purdey, Woodward and H&H. Easy to find examples.

Crossed Chisels will no doubt be along to help us with this non-issue. Hope so - he is always a wealth of knowledge.

Did you look at any of the Purdey's in the December Holt's auction?

It depends. The British view new modern barrels by the maker on an older gun as adding value to it. Likewise refinishing, as long as it is done to the quality standards of the original maker. The Colt/Winchester psychosis prevalent here, which really doesn't apply to British guns, makes that a hard sell in the US.

Nitro, would the key to your statement be "the maker" which I would take to be in most cases the original maker, H & H or Purdey to rebarrel one of their guns in which case there is no argument as to maintained/enhanced value. However, if one of their guns are rebarreled by someone else, it might be a different story.

There is no diference in bbl spacing & wts possible to achieve between Conventional (V lump), dovetail lump, or chopper lump. The dovetail chopper lump or through lump will almost always add width to the bbls while the shoe lump will add heighth. All the Lefevers I have examined used the conventional V-lump, which as they were top bolted had no reason to add the dovetail to lower lump. Have never heard of one of these failing in the jointing either. Some very early breech loading doubles were even jointed using soft solder, the brazing would be a great step forward I would think.