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Rest in peace, Steve.

Not as good as Geoff's image, but better



Original Birmingham Proof 1925-1954 at 3 Tons = max. service load about 9000 psi
13/1 bore .719 - .728" and at reproof as greybeard said .736"

Can't explain 2 Birmingham reproof date codes, but some alteration in the barrel had to have been made.

I don't know what the M over 928 means?

Seems IMGBOX.com is almost a Phoenix from the Ashes????

Too, I use a little Lighter Fluid to clean each case after resizing & all.


Hochachtungsvoll,

Raimey
rse

I noticed an interesting detail in the photos of your rifle.

The top rib is clearly marked "Masquelier Liège", which means it is actually a Masquelier-built double rifle, although it is closely connected to Jules Bury.

I recently came across some historical information showing that Charles Masquelier acquired Établissements Bury-Donckier in 1964, including the brand, workshop, tooling, unfinished actions, technical drawings and order books. Masquelier continued building fine sporting arms using Bury's designs and craftsmanship, and many rifles from that period reflect this close connection.

So your rifle appears to be a nice example of that transition from Bury-Donckier to Masquelier. A very interesting piece of Liège gunmaking history.

Wolfgang (Hunting-Heritage.com)

Here is the complete overview of the collaboration and takeover between the Liège gunmakers J. Bury and Charles Masquelier in English.
Historical Background
* Établissements Bury-Donckier (1938): The renowned Liège gunmaker Jules Bury merged with Marcel Donckier in 1938 to form Établissements Bury-Donckier. The firm was globally respected for high-grade side-by-side shotguns and double rifles (often built on Anson & Deeley or Holland & Holland sidelock mechanisms).
* 1960s Market Context: By the early 1960s, like many traditional craft workshops in Liège, Bury-Donckier faced structural pressures, succession issues, and rising operational costs in custom hand manufacturing.
The 1964 Takeover by Masquelier
* Acquisition: In 1964, Charles Masquelier (Manufacture d’armes de luxe C. Masquelier, based on Rue de la Cathédrale in Liège) acquired the Établissements Bury-Donckier.
* Assets Transferred: Masquelier acquired the brand, trade names, and rights of Jules Bury / Bury-Donckier, as well as:
* Complete sets of tools, dies, and workshop machinery.
* Remaining inventory (unfinished actions, barrels, high-grade walnut blanks).
* Technical drawings, original order books, and patents.
Post-1964 Production & Markings
* Manufacturing: Masquelier continued producing luxury firearms using Bury’s designs, components, and craftsmanship techniques.
* Markings & Engravings:
* Firearms finished shortly after 1964 using original Bury action forgings or parts are often engraved or stamped "C. Masquelier Successeur de J. Bury" or "Ets. Bury-Donckier - C. Masquelier".
* Subsequent builds carried combined trade names or Masquelier’s official Liège proof-house trademarks alongside legacy Bury styling.
Developments from 1980 Onward
* In 1980, gunmaker Roger Cremer took over the Masquelier firm.
* Under Cremer, the entity formally traded under the corporate name Masquelier & Bury-Donckier S.A., operating in Liège as both a fine gunmaker producing bespoke hunting arms and a retail establishment for hunting accoutrements.

Is there a legacy/continuation/contingency plan for the website to survive something more serious than waiting for a fiber optic line install? A prolonged absence of the PGCA website would be very detrimental to the PGCA. This hiccup could be the ghost of Christmas yet to come.

If you are not familiar with this website, it is an accumulation of literally thousands of biographies related to mostly, but not all, British gun makers. Wonderful photos of dated Trade Labels. A lifetime of work, I am sure. The founder and author is offering the website for sale. It would be a shame to have it fall by the wayside.

https://www.internetgunclub.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=444

I weep for my grandchildren. I agree with Keith about how supporting the Democrats on any level is leading to disaster. And yes it does make me angry when support of their platform is done with the most illogical reasoning. But, that is their right to think that way. My anger comes from how it effects me and mine. Keith I believe leaving off the name calling, which is done by both sides, would go along way in your defending what makes America great and is being lost for the most absurd of reasoning. I weep for my grandchildren.

Gebrüder Ellenburg & I spent a lovely evening in Green Hills, Nashville @ the Grande Opening of Ball & Buck Nashville chatting w/ Lyndze Daly, Colorado rep of Armurerie Elysées Paris, who is trying to capitalize on the departure from upper rung Guns from the >>Golden Age of Gunning<< to Black Guns by the European Hunters. Buck & Ball Nashville has a bona fide gunroom as well as Barber Shop and may be offering Hunts in the DRC in a couple years. As the Dallas Flagship Store has a Grande Re-Opening soon, it too, as well as other stores, will have a similar Gunroom.

Enroute, we were able to catch Leather Goods Guy, Col. Littleton in his Lynnville, Tennessee salesroom & chat a bit about his humble beginnings selling 17 cufflinks in Birmingham, Alabama a Lifetime ago as he has 83 years & is literally wide open.

https://ballandbuck.com/?srsltid=AfmBOoq2q4qw-wUCfqRY695YDjxk7VX9Sh_XGvHctlJxXActYGxQXAU0

Lyndze had a couple rounds of 700 Nitro and was takin' orders for a Dumoulin of Liège to the tune of $230k I believe, but in an unadorned state. Barrels are made by a French Cat, but no one will reveal his name. I have seen videos of him shooting the 700 Nitro, but his name remains veiled. You know, H&K has all the barrels blanks made in French of Cannon Grade Steel and they are mum on the subject. So I wonder if it is the same Cat?

https://armurerie-elysees.com/en/gun-store/

The owner is a Belgian Gunsmith named Benjamin & well knows the mechanics in Liège.

Montana Rifle Company as well as Benelli had reps there and one case was dedicated to Blaser.



Hochachtungsvoll

Raimey
rse

Indeed, the Sauer & Sohn ledger is in the basement of the Old Suhl Jail in the archives.

Pleasure us w/ some fotos or forward some to me & I will get them posted.


Hochachtungsvoll

Raimey
rse

The Federal and Aguila short shells are near 10,000psi. They weren’t intended for 2” English guns.

Best,
Ted

Mike is right, and I should have mentioned that you can partial neck size or even partial size body and neck with a full length sizing die. But a neck sizing die is just that.

I've been reloading my 6 m/m Rem. using the same old C&H .244 Remington Neck sizing dies my dad used. Most here know they are one and the same case, and only the factory rifling twist was different. I never owned a 6 m/m full length sizing die, and never needed one. I've reloaded my brass to the point where I started to see necks cracking, and discarded it, but it still never needed the body sized. If I ever bought some used brass that had been fired in a different rifle, it's entirely possible it wouldn't chamber well in my rifle after neck sizing only.

The one complete head separation I had with a .22-250 that blinded me for roughly half an hour happened after I reloaded some very used brass that had been fired in a different rifle which had less headspace. I was in my 20's and had bought a .22-250 on a VZ 24 Mauser action. A friend gave me his old .22-250 brass and a set of dies. I had set up the sizing dies to just kiss the shoulder of that old brass, but didn't know it was still short for the chamber of my new gun. It showed bad primer flattening on the first two shots which alarmed me... but not enough to quit and find out why. I decided to fire one more, and all hell broke loose, and it felt like Mike Tyson punched me in both eyes. In an instant, I was totally blind.

I learned in a big hurry that correct sizing and properly setting up dies is super critical. Neither me or the rifle suffered permanent damage, but if you'd seen the brass and burned powder particles embedded around my eyes, you'd know I was extremely lucky. The shock of the blast must have shut down my optic nerves. I also later learned that Paul Mauser had redesigned the 98 Mauser bolt shroud to deflect gasses around a shooters eyes in the event of a rupture. He did good!

More B.S. from Princess SKB. It will never happen, but I'd like him/her to prove I ever took joy in someone's pain over losing a dog.

What the Preacher is crying about is that I commented on him dredging up and posting a picture of a dog he lost one or two years earlier, in an attempt to gin up some sympathy during another Thread. There was no taking joy on my part, and my comment on him playing that sympathy game was long after his dog died. If anything, he disrespected the memory of his dog by using it as a tool to deceive people here long after the dog was gone. That's sick. The Preacher is telling more lies again.

No different than him hiding behind Bible quotes or Scripture verses to cover up his dishonesty and hypocrisy. No different than doing the same by posting pictures of poor Guatemala kids only to deflect from his crap by showing us what a great guy he thinks he is.

I have lost a couple wonderful dogs during my time here. I never thought to turn my loss into a Thread or use it to look for sympathy... and certainly never as a tool to deflect years after the loss. I discussed that once by PM with Doug Woodin after one of those Threads, and he felt the same. He had also lost good dogs over the years, and he wasn't much interested in someone announcing they lost their dog while he had spent a couple years caring for his wife while cancer ate her alive, and there was nothing he could do to help save her. And when she mercifully passed, he kept his grief to himself instead of trying to use it like the Preacher is doing to falsely attack me again.

Preacher also lied by saying this wasn't another attack Thread, when obviously it is. Preacher still lies when he says I said he never went to Guatemala after he announced his departure in that crybaby "Down One" Thread. At the time I made that comment, he absolutely had not left, and he was still Posting and then just logging in and lurking. His partial quotes without any indication of when the words were said is something like Joff manufacturing false QUOTES. The only difference is Joff isn't cloaking himself in Scripture to facilitate his lies. He knows I acknowledged he did go for a 4 1/2 day trip after he apparently did leave us. Preacher is bearing false witness, twisting the truth, and he knows it. He also never responded to his false claim that I was "proof-texting Scripture".

And he never replied when I commented on him making multiple personal attacks while using a Signature Line that said, "Personal attacks only reflect the inadequacy of the argument, and the character of the attacker." Instead, he showed us all his character by deleting that Signature Line. I reminded him of his frequent lie where he said if we all Posted under our full names, it would stop personal attacks. But he knew Jims full name, he had even hunted and socialized with Jim and his wife, but here he was personally attacking him. You can't make this shit up. This guy is sicker than sick

If Preacher really is praying for me, and I don't believe it, I would ask that he stop immediately and pray for himself instead. It makes me sick to think someone like him feels I need his prayers. I'd not need prayers from a vindictive phony lying Preacher who has severe morality and mental issues.

And despite what he says, he is never going to let this go. This guy never stops. He's like the freaking Energizer Bunny of deceit and dishonesty. So sorry I wasted time responding to him and James today. It was nice and I should have spent the time welding my brush hog and sharpening the blades, etc. But if I didn't, they would claim I was too guilt ridden and too cowardly to respond, and take a victory lap. It used to be easier when there were many more Conservatives to respond to their B.S.

AI didn't exactly have an answer either, which is unusual.

There was a gunmaker in Birmingham by that name very early (in the 1750s) but it appears that the name was loosely used in the Birmingham trades after that (late 1800s) without a solid connection to either one place or a maker.

Intresting...

OK, I know that there are some that have been illegally released in various parts. They are playing hell with the rivers and upsetting the trout fishermen.
I suspect that 'rewilding' is misguided, but perhaps that is a topic for another post.

My 1946 Webley 12 bore has 30inch barrels, a Prince of Wales semi-pistol grip and a splinter fore-end, just like the Percy Stanbury gun. It weighs 6.8 pounds and works beautifully on pheasants.

Our baby poults will arrive next week to be nurtured by us until mid-October, when we will encourage them to fly.

HB

28" non-ejector. Chambers are 2 1/2". Stoch dimensions are 14" x 2 1/2" x 1 3/8". Choked MOD / Full. Weight is 6lbs1oz. Minimum wall is 35. Slight cast off. Lock up is solid no movement. Bright clean bores, good blue. Barrels ring nicely. No issues with the wood that with very clean checkering. Original Jostam anti-flinch pad.
$2350.00

Google- a general 10% U.S. tariff still applies to vintage and antique guns (pre-1898) imported from Britain, though pre-1898 firearms are exempt from standard ATF import licensing (Form 6) and Federal Firearms License (FFL) requirements

With almost no exceptions, every gun I own gets shot or can be shot by friends and family. And I have a lot of guns in the gun room. My Dove guns are Model 42 Pigeon and High grades. I keep no safe queens in my house. They are guns meant to use and get used. Anyone who has been in my gun room is given the standard offer, if you see something you like, borrow it and have fun with it. Guns do not wear out with proper care and give no real happiness just sitting on the wall. I have land and investments and guns are just guns, not treasure. You can borrow my guns, not my dog and we can talk about my wife.

I'm in this and it's very good content. It comes in slow and steady drips but it's quite indepth and the depth of experience that Ian Sweetman has is pretty impressive. He has a 2 man shop in Hertfordshire doing true best quality work under his own name and for the trade, as they all do. It's a lot of fun and they're extremely upfront and open to any question you can think of. No secrets or witchcraft.

Yes, I think it will. The plot thickens on this, as I guess it always does, and I'm not sure if anyone is interested, but there are two reamer profiles out there, very similar except one is designed to take regular .284/7mm bullets, while the other (sourced from JGS reamers) stipulates .287 which is more correct. The problem with moving forward is that no one can or will drill a hole other than that for a standard 7mm rifle, which is .277. I don't know what the bore size of the original was, and haven't been able to find that in any old documentation, only the original bullet diameter which was usually .288, although some mention .287.

I found a cut rifled barrel maker who can cut grooves deeper on request and thought of getting the standard 7mm barrel with the grooves cut an extra .001 deep. This will take the groove depth from the standard .284 to .286. I can get .286 bullets in any conformation from Hawk bullets. I can get dies cut by CH tool. JGS can cut the reamer (which I already have, but for future reference), they have the print. So we shall see.

There are actually two original 280 rifles up for sale right now - one is an original Vernor Gipson on Gunbroker, on an Enfield action, and the other is Elmer Keith's original target/test rifle and an enormous trove of gear with it.

Here's another >>K<<(pink) tube mechanic on an Emil Eckoldt from 1925. The more the merrier I guess?

Hochachtungsvoll

Raimey
rse

KI(Künstliche Intelligenz) actually gives the tube maker's mark as a »K«. Tough one for now: Kelber, Klett, etc....



Hochachtungsvoll,

Raimey
rse

Not this "one". The Swiss might, but not me.

I have a Husqvarna Mauser sporter in .220 Swift. When I bought it, it had a two stage trigger. I hated it and did all I could to get used to it but finally swapped it out with a Timney that breaks crisp and clean, with no travel, at about 3 lbs. Crows are the ones who hate it now. But, even it had nowhere near as much travel as those in the video.

Rifles like that being used with irons remind me of Simo Hayha, the Finnish sniper who wreacked such havoc on the Ruskies.

https://www.warhistoryonline.com/world-war-ii/simo-hayha-sniper.html

I always thought "cape guns" didn't come about until the 1850's. This percussion "St Kirchner Suhl" cape-gun on Holt's sealed bid auction changed an opinion. It is beautiful:

https://www.holtsauctioneers.com/as...826+++2009+&refno=227358&image=1

Yes Palunc. I live 1 hour and 45 minutes away now.

I wish I could have met him.