doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com W J Jeffery Sidelocks

How familiar are you guys with his sidelocks. It's a backaction . Maybe from around 1900, but not sure. Looks like a pretty nice gun. Aren't they mostly known for rifles?

I had a beautiful sidelock, back action. What I believed was there best grade with dogs on both lockplates, a pheasant on the bottom of the receiver and lab head on trigger guard. The mainspring had rollers on the top limb which rolled up the hammer. One of those guns you regret ever selling. I would buy another without question. Jeffery himself was a shrew operator but used top tradesman to make his guns. Mine was made by Daniel leonard and Son

I have seen several Jeffery sidelocks with wonderful decoration. Here are a couple. They often used the "box" ejector [Deeley] from Westley Richards.

Did they embellish Scott actions? This looks like a Scott action with a Woodward-like carved breech. Pretty gun nonetheless.

I really don't know the source of the actions. Note that the locks differ, but the general style remains. I have "heard" that Jeffery brought in, and least in part, their shotguns. It seems that they had an Idea about how they wanted to engrave and sculpt their guns. The top gun in the photo is mine and has a stock extension to fit me at 15 1/2". I seem to shoot it well. The lower gun belonged to the late Don Hardin. He shot every gun well.

Most if not all Jeffrey guns were made by Daniel Leonard.
Those actions look like Rogers actions. Those rollers on the mainsprings are called anti-friction rollers. Pretty ingenious. The locks are back action locks as well if I remember right.

Daryl, somebody looks like they tried removing the hing pin on the bottom gun. What a shame.

Both of those guns are very similar, but with subtle differences. Notice the lock plate side nails, different sizes, different locations. The size of the pins just behind the breech balls are different as well. Pin locations on lock plates in different locations.

The Deeley box wasn’t the only ejector mechanism that utilized a box. Ross’s patent No. 14886 of 1890 utilized a box too. Most definitely not encountered as much as the Deeley box for sure.

If my memory serves me correctly the bottom gun had a Baker ejector.

Daryl, did you know that Westley Richards own the name of Jeffery, this is why there is often the box ejector.
Marc;

Marc:

Fantastic to see you posting.

Serbus,

Raimey
rse

Rollers on the main springs are a cool little feature