doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Anson of Anson & Deeley

Deeley came to America in the early 1880s to help H and R set up. From the wonderful quality of the H and R /Anson and Deeleys, one would assume some British workers helped out in the U.S.

Brad Bachelder, a gunsmith in Grand Rapids, Michigan, has an H&R SxS 12ga - serial #1. Was looking at it Friday - in mint condition, and we were talking about bores and chokes. He said this one had tappered bores from the breech to the muzzle and it was the only SxS he had seen like this. Just found it interesting. Paul

Sounds like a Vena Contracta.

On the 15th of June 1893 Horatio F. Phillips, sometimes gun editor of THE FIELD, was granted a patent in which, �The gun barrels of shot guns are made of diminishing internal diameter for the cartridge chamber to the muzzle��

The Encyclop�dia of Sport said it was ��of a form known in the scientific gun-making world as a �Vena Contracta� �this joins the 18-gauge barrel to the 12-gauge cartridge chamber.� and claimed �It was introduced by Joseph Lang and Son in 1893.�

Contemporary Joseph Lang adverting featured a cross section of the barrel and said �For Special Trials of the �Vena Contracta� made by the Editor of the Field, see Field Oct 10 and 17th 1893.�

Most extant examples are engraved with the Lang name and sometimes feature two-inch chambers. Typically they are built on Webley flat back sidelock actions which incorporate the Rogers cocking system of 1881 and the Webley and Brain patent screw grip (dolls head) of 1882. Most have a tre-foil motif engraved to the fences.

Douglas Tate
Editor at Large
SHOOTING SPORTSMAN
The Magazine of Wingshooting & Fine Guns.