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I have been hearing sbout good numbers of YOY birds a bit further south.

Sharps4590: It's never too-late for a Granger.

I just bought one this spring because I was out of the uplocking reel-seat version (I'd sold a later W&M 8040 Aristocrat to finance a gun project earlier this year). Not having one in the "quiver" was troubling me. Replaced it with a decent used Stream & Lake 8642 for not much money. After 30-years and 20-something Gierach books, I like having one around.

I have a Rook rifle which came down to me from my great grand uncle. I feel a little shy as it is somewhat battered but since the OP asked for rook rifle photos, here goes:

















A friend of mine had this ammo loaded in the US and brought it out to me here in Bangladesh, where I live. The bullets created a slight bulge in the case which prevented them from chambering. But a gunsmith friend of mine lightly ground down the bulged area till they fit. They work! I use mine to shoot jackals (Canis aureus) and Muntjac (Muntiacus muntjac) which it does admirably out to a hundred yards or so.

All the best

Skeeter BD

Artic,
Did you check .404 Jeffery?
Mike

The engraving looks of less quality than I would expect from a Best Grade. It's certainly not anything special as far as the scroll cut quality/style nor the additional cuts like the border(s), fine line shading and the accent cuts around the scroll groupings. The latter is very crudely & quickly done.

The one thing that really stands out to me is the bbl address.
Two things about it:
#1...The lettering is to be kind, not of professional quality. Certainly not something for a Best Quality firearm.
Letters are mishappen. If the engraver put down guide lines to letter, they certainly weren't followed closely at all.
#2,,, and this is an Engraver's thing,,it looks like the person that did the engraving of the lettering orig lettered it as :
.....73St James Street
Then realized or was informed of the mistake and
added/squeezed in the 's on to James to form James's
The way out of wack spacing betw the James's and Street is almost a sure sign of correcting a mistake in the lettering.
The other thing it can point to is that it was done by a #1.

By comparison, the lock plate lettering looks better. But there is little of it and it is harder to see in the pic.

Just some things that I see. Simple observations.

Thanks, Stan. That is good info. All told, I will only have $100 into it once delivered ($50 for the raffle ticket and another $50 for the FFL transfer), so if it needs to be serviced, I won't be out much overall!

My order arrived today (two days). Great product and service. I still think the shipping cost was way out of line. It could be the Cabela system based on cost. Always hated that because a lot of very expensive things are really small. If the insurance were included, it would make a lot more sense.

Especially with a hammer gun!
Karl

Dropped to $1100

Looked all through my books. I can find Jewson of Halifax and Dawson of Lincolnshire but no luck with yours. Don't worry though as I have two English guns that I can find nothing on and am still digging on those without success so far. Lagopus.....

Did not know that, Tom. Thanks.

That all sounds very positive. Hope you do it again next year. I had already committed myself to go to the Vintagers in Md. I shot my Rizzini 550 410, and let’s just say shooting the 410 is a completely different shotgun experience.

Rough season! Birds have had the weather gauge so far!! Hot. Low humidity. No wind. Still making a go of it though.





Too hot out here!



Puppy (he’s 18 mos. old) with staunch point on a small group of sharptails….that did not sit tight.


A 1930’s 16 bore Darne Halifax was put to work….



Another French game gun, a 20 bore Damon-Petrik posed on hOmeleSs jOe’s truck (daily driver)


Crappy tailgate shot after this mornings walk. 16 bore NEA Rizzini 500.

A ghost thread but a couple of Waverlys have come up for sale
https://www.proxibid.com/lotinformation/68702226/the-waverly-arms-co-double-barrel-12-ga

This one has good images of the cocking hook and the ball adjuster
https://oldarmsofidaho.com/product/...-sxs-12-gauge-shotgun-mfg-defiance-ohio/

No marks or names of any kind on locks. 2006 bnp measurements stamped on flats still match the bore size. Fired both barrels twice off to gun maker she goes.

Now that's a pretty picture. Good luck

I have been privileged to be the caretaker of a very high quality and condition late double flint for a number of decades. It’s not long till I’ll need to find a new home for it due to my age. It was marketed by W. H. Wilson of London, probably made by Alexander Wilson, late of Joseph Manton.

Take a look at it on this link to the Parker Gun Collectors:

https://parkerguns.org/forums/showthread.php?t=1917&highlight=Wilson

Not quite ready to part with it but soon…..

These are just my opinions from my perspective.

As a millennial my self. I will Turn 40 at the new year.
The amount of ppl my age and younger that have 20ga sxs is alot. I have met tons of ppl with cz bob whites and sharptails. Some have skbs and others may have a stoger. But there are alot of with newer cheaper Sxs

Me and my wife went to the great north shoot in medford this year.
Me with my bss and her with her japan built skb. Definitely on the newer end of the guns there. Both ours are from the 1980's.

On reason most of us millennial buy newer guns, is the ability to have chokes. And the ability to shoot steel.
Alot of us also bow hunt. And when we rifle hunt for meat, we do so with copper. We dont have a problem slinging lead down range. We just dont want to eat any of it.

Yes my bss and wifes skb dont have chokes. The prices for these were hard to pass up. Would prefer chokes. But funds aren't unlimited

Most ppl my age or younger dont have collections of guns. It not financially feasible for alot of us. So we pick fewer guns to cover more things.
Quailty vintage guns cost alot. And limit us to extremely expensive bismuth shot if we want to hunt. And with the fix chokes. Which does limit to a degree what is capable with one gun. They are a hard choice for us pick. Most the guns that cost the same as a cz are usually not in the best shape and need work, that add so much cost it doesn't make sense to buy them.

Have also met a ton of ppl that got in to guns since covid. Big group of these ppl make really good money. They dont have problems ording a semi trailer full of shells. Or 4 spolars and a couple pallets of loading supplies in one fell swoop. Custom ordering high end shotguns or rifles or pistol is a monthly thing. Not a single one of those ppl are over 50. They didn't grow up hunting or fishing. The dont have the nostalgia for old guns. The ones that do are into anything retro in gental, aka modern hipsters. Driving a jeep grand wagoneer from 1968 and guns from "before the war". Rich kids cosplaying as workering class boomers from the 1970-80's


And there is also upland hunting. So few of us have. We have turkey or dove hunted. But the birds just aren't were they used to be.
So many guns have pheasants and quail. The staggering amount of ppl i have met in the clay field under 40, that have never seen one in the wild. There hasn't been many if any wild upland birds in indiana in 20 years. It all raised bird hunts on private land. So many of the older guns have birds that we have never gotten to hunt. Why would we be enthralled with them if they things on the sides, we have so little access too. I have seen alot of younger ppl turn off by the bird engraving. My self included.

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.

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

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.

Information and or experience with this late production Westley Richards?

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.

There are a few good gunsmiths in my area.

Such a deal.