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A Purdey hammer gun recently sold from a dealer in Alabama with,”nvsn.” Top rib had the name and address but no Purdey on lock plates. I own a Henry Adkin, not Atkin, SLE in near pristine original condition with relatively recent BNP but no serial number, 188 stamped underneath the barrels, name on TR and SL. Anomalies for sure.

if you can get the locks out and take a picture we could at least see who the lock maker is.

The gun came in and she is very excited. It fits her and she can operate it with ease.

Any recent information? I'm trying to donate my English Dewson lightweight percussion 10-bore to Teddy Roosevelt park. It supposedly belonged to the cook at his ranch who brought it from New York where he had used it on passenger pigeons. I don't know whether Dewson was a maker or a retail name. Old V.M. Starr of Eden, SD jug choked it for me and I shot it for many years.

They do work. We shot many cases of surplus red paper Rem. hi-base (copper not brass) 8's when I was at Quantico in '56-57 shooting skeet. I shot with a Parkerized Savage copy of the Rem. Model 11 with a Cutt's Copmpensator. Cartridges came in boxes of ten. Had a heavy little cup of red tracer comp in the top wad that stayed with the shot well, as occasionally the cup would hit a clay. They did start a few fires though when a burning cup landed among target debris in dry vegetation. Still the best coaching came if a person could get behind the shooter and watch. Raised a few eyebrows when I took a bunch home and used them on the duck pass.

Who was it made for ?

Excellent lead and very knowledgeable source. Christian Reichenbach 1837-1842 in Saanen then moved to the Zeughaus of Bern. Thanks again Parabola!

I bought my last 3 boxes from them. Good price fast shipping.

Needing nitre bluing salta, a lead on who is selling some, and some information on the ratio to mix of sodium and potassium nitrates to mark up some. Thanks.

Always enjoyable reading.
Made me wish I could have experienced those days with him.

Information and or experience with this late production Westley Richards?

I have placed a ad for some Rigby 350 magnum ammo. Thought I would also bring it up here.
Bought a Rigby Mauser and got 5 boxes of ammo. The problem was it flanged ammo not rimless and of course a different design all together.
I have looked everywhere for ammo to no avail. I would like to buy or trade for some Rigby 350 Magnum rimless cartridges so I might shoot this rifle.
Any help is appreciated.
I have a mule deer tag coming up in November and would like to take a buck with the rifle if possible.
Please PM me if you can help.

Stephen, it sounds like you wish to replace one bad barrel rather than the much simpler and cheaper task of fitting a set of orphan barrels to your frame. If so, it would be interesting to hear what Jerry Andrews thinks of that idea, and whether he gave you an estimate.

I thought about that possibility some years ago when I bought a 16 ga. G Grade Lefever that had been confiscated by a local Police Dept. The gun was stolen, and the crook sawed off the barrels to 9", making it illegal. They would not sell the sawed off barrels , so even sleeving was out of the question. I couldn't find a good orphan set, but found one with one damaged tube. So I wondered if it was possible to disassemble and then rejoint two good tubes. I never did find a second set of 16 ga. barrels with the opposite barrel I still needed.

I've never actually heard of anyone doing that, but it seemed plausible because there are some Lefevers that have two different serial numbers on the barrels, and the thought by some Lefever collectors was that some of them may have been returned to the factory to have a damaged tube replaced, and had the second serial number added. I can't imagine that would be a cheap or easy job, and would probably only make sense on a high grade gun, if it was possible at all. But with enough time and enough money, you could probably raise the Titanic, and get it sailing again.

eightbore was indeed lucky to find a perfectly fitting set of barrels for his 0 grade Smith. I lucked out the same way once with an orphan set of Syracuse Lefever barrels. The first time I fit a set of orphan barrels to a gun was also on a 00 grade L.C. Smith that I bought for $40.00 due to a blown left tube (obstruction burst due to snow). After several years, I finally found a good set that needed material removed to fit my frame. The other possibility is that material would need to be added to the hook by TIG welding or shimming. Of course, the width and height at the breech should match closely too, and firing pin separation has to be the same.

I started by carefully removing material from the hook using fine round files and round stones. I smoked the pin and hook and gradually achieved even better contact than the original set, but was still a little short of being able to close the gun. Then I made a real bonehead rookie mistake, and decided to remove a little material from the breech end of the barrels and extractors, never thinking that this would also make the rim recess more shallow, and affect headspace. I kept smoking the breech face and slowly cut-and-tried until I had good even contact at the breech and the correct clearance under the barrel flats, and finally the gun closed with that satisfying sound that a good tight L.C. Smith makes. I felt pretty proud of myself at that point. The top lever was right of center, and all seemed great until I decided to test fire it. I then found it wouldn't quite close with any factory loaded shell in the chambers.

I uttered a few choice expletives, and set the project aside, thinking about how I could cut the rim recess about .005" deeper to correct the headspace problem I had created. I didn't want to buy a reamer for one small job, so considered other options. A year or so later, I found a suitable milling cutter in a box of tooling at a surplus tool dealer, and altered it a bit by grinding between centers to get the correct 12 ga. rim diameter, and safely piloted to keep it centered in the chambers. I cut it by hand and finally ended up with a shooter with mismatched serial numbers. As I recall, my total investment in the gun, the orphan barrels, and the milling cutter was around $125.00... plus my time.

I know Mitch Schultz of Gunsmithing LTD in Southport, Connecticut retired in June. He will be sorely missed in the northeast.

Such a deal.

I only have one rook rifle. It is a nice small Belgian Martini that was in 300 Rook. I say was because 60 years ago when I acquired it 300 Rook brass was not available but 32 Long Colt was close so I had it rechambered. The heeled bullets would chamber and shot fairly well but left a mess of lead in the throat. Then Buffalo Arms started making a beautiful little 300 bullet mould which creates bullets that match the bore and seat perfectly in the 32 Long Colt brass. The result is a cartridge which at first glance would pass for 300 Rook and shoots very accurately. Actually, the "rechamber" was just to increase the rim diameter .005 so the Colt case would seat. The Colt case is about .020 shorter than the Rook but it doesn't seem to harm the accuracy.

I asked Holts for pictures of barrel flats, standing breach, extractor, etc. and - boom - those pictures showed up on their website the next day! Lost the auction of course, but was pleased with the service.

Titewad and Federal paper hulls are great smelling.

https://www.ludwigborovnik.at/hammer-double-barrel-shotgun/

Here is where I lifted the foto. Interesting it is devoid of any adornment. And too it lacks the metal buttplate that makers & end users considered to be so versatile where the metal protected the wood, it could be used to bludgeon a wounded animal or to defend against chargin' animals when out of ammo and one really needs to fix bayonets.

Serbus,

Raimey
rse

PM sent

I would assume that the 200 yard leaf would work just fine at 100 yards on game size animals with the 30-06 trajectory.

Mt Al,
The original barrels would have been about the same diameter. The 8X57JRSx20 gauge barrels would be different diameter on one or both sides. The original wood would not fit the combination barrels, so at least new forearm wood would need to be added. We can't tell from the photo if they kept the original barrels, made completely new barrels, or re-lined the original barrels to 8X57JRSX20 ga. If they used the old barrels or made completely new barrels and trashed the original barrel tubes, they could have used the original forearm iron with new wood fitting the new barrels. If they kept the original barrels for use, they could have kept the complete forearm to use with it and made a completely new forearm for the combination barrels.
Mike

Now $55 + ship

Hello Marc Ret:

Please send me your phone number via PM

Thanks,

Grouse Guy

I priced it at that amount because I had bought the exact same gun a year before for $2800.00. And it wasn't quite as nice as mine.