doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com 1905 made Westley Richards with unusual history

Unfortunately Marc, it is not a droplock, I have seen one or two sidelevers but never one that was a "best" with droplocks. I am not even sure they ever made one, I have a friend who worked at Westley for a number of years and still has a couple of mates there. I am going to ask if he can get someone to go through the archive and see if they did make any, great thread, best, Mike

Gentlemen,

Thank you all for your friendly words. I�m glad you enjoyed my presentation.



Hi Lagopus,

thanks for pointing me to the high costs of the License to Kill Game. Actually, I didn�t notice it, but you are right: very expensive! This license is of special interest for me, because as a side collection I do collect vintage German hunting licenses. So I have a �weak tooth� as we say here for such papers. And the German licenses were also expensive, but the costs were only 1/3 of an English license. But still expensive anyway. And the high costs were intended by the Government to limit the number of hunters. I guess, it will have been the same in England.
Frank Albrecht�s license is my first English hunting license � and my first license directly connected to a gun I own.




Hi Kensal Rise,

wow.... reminds you of your latest droplock? I have now a picture in my head showing a six feet long rack filled with droplocks�..

Anyway: I agree: the story behind the gun is often as rewarding as the gun itself. Actually, it�s the first time one of my guns comes with a more or less complete documentation about provenance/history. I was dreaming for such a documentation since very, very long�..




Marc,

many thanks for your compliments!

Regarding the sidelever you found: it�s not a Westley Richards, but a W. Richards, Liverpool, what�s a totally different company:

http://www.wrichardsguns.co.uk/history.htm

Now it�s time for a confession: the snap caps of my Westley Richards aren�t made for Westley Richards, but for W. Richards, Liverpool.



I guess, Frank or Charles Albrecht bought these snap caps in Liverpool (where they were doing business) at W. Richards.

Best regards

Martin

Martin:
Envy not. I've owned only two Westley droplocks in my life. Sold the first. Now have another that is about the same level of finish as yours with straight hand grip and detachable bottom plate.

Yours has the historical upper hand however. But I encourage you to shoot it. That's what they're made for!

Great gun with the story to match. Hard to type as I am drooling onto my phone. Thanks for sharing.

Hi Kensal,

Rest assured: I will shoot the gun. For this purpose I ordered from Westley Richards a leather covered hand guard, which arrived together with copies from their ledgers.

The wrapping paper alone �







�class and style. I like that.

Regards

Martin

Sauerfan, do yourself a favour, use a glove on the front hand instead. One day after you have shot a lot or it�s a hot day you will put the gun away with the handguard still attached, the leather will then play nasty tricks on the barrel blacking best, Mike

Hi Mike,

thank you very much for your advise. OK, I'll better use a glove instead.

Regards

Martinb

sauerfan:
Please "do yourself a favour" and use the Westley handguard first. You will appreciate it's style, how little a properly made guard wears your barrel finish (none of mine have ever done damage) ... and how little you'll resemble the late M. Jackson on the clays course.

Kensal, I agree they won�t do any damage if you remember to always take them off and I also agree they are more stylish than a glove but don�t leave one on ! best, Mike

Thank you so much for sharing the comprhensive research you've done on this beautiful gun. Also, your photos are A-1 excellent and I enjoyed studying them as much as the text.

I've got a beautiful Westley Richards 12 bore from 1890. That's a good 3 years or so before the detachble locks were offered, so I missed out on that classic WR option! Oh well, they're still out there, as your recent acquisition gives testimony to.

Again, many thanks for posting - Marc