doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Purdey

My brother had a Vietnam era Randall knife with a split in the handle. A Guitar repairer in New Orleans did an amazing job.

http://www.bladenetwork.com/forum/showthread.php?s=14ed442b2766123e1af697c883cd049e&t=57968

That is an incredible web page. I served in Korea 67-68 and Vietnam, 68-69 but I had never heard of a Randall. I have a good friend that was SF and Bu Dop and another that actually was shipped up to Ben Het when he hit country because he was a 106 RR man and he fired at the Russian tank!

As for the guitar repairman, I hesitated to say much because of the negative reaction but this fellow does great work so I'll just have to see what happens.

That is absolutely a job for David Trevallion. He apprenticed with Purdey's in the 50's and 60's and came here and has been an expert stockmaker and fine gunsmith ever since. He has resurrected a good number of guns in worse shape than that one. In fact, Richard Purdey telephoned David a couple of months ago while David was recuperating from an illness. Too bad he's retiring...

While I am here, IMA has a Purdey very similar to mine that has this description

"Research tell us that this very gun was sold to Jang Bahadur, then Prime Minister of Nepal, Unwin lists this Serial Number #4479 as being sold on the 31st of May 1850, officially listing it as �A double pea rifle" costing 68 pounds five shillings. This type of rifle was popular for rooks and rabbits.
"
http://www.ima-usa.com/purdey-of-london-...-31st-1850.html

So, a 50 cal was used to shoot rabbits?

From the Wiki:

"A rook rifle is an English single-shot dropping block or break-action small calibre rifle for shooting rooks and rabbits, developed in 1883 by the gun-makers Holland & Holland. The original rifle was .295 bore, with an 80 grain bullet, but slightly larger bores of .300 and .320 were also made at the time.[1][2]
Because such shy game would scatter immediately after a shot, there was no disadvantage to a single-shot action. Rook rifles remained single-shot, rather than magazine loaded, until they disappeared after World War II."

Someone at IMA knows about as much as I do.

The demise of the Rook rifle was the .22rf. which was much cheaper. I have a double in .300 RR and .410 shotgun. Calibres ranged from 297/230, 250, 255 Jeffrey, 297/250, 295 and 300 (which are the same), 320, 360 No.5, and 380. Rooks are of the crow family and are communal nesters. The idea is to shoot the young rooks called branchers as they leave the nests. Partly to keep the numbers down and for eating purposes in Rook Pie. The nursery rhyme of '4 and 20 black birds baked in a pie' refers to these. The Rook rifle calibres are low velocity but heavy bullets as rooks are shot at high trajectories and the low velocity means that the spent and falling bullets are less harmful. The traditional day for rook shooting is 12th. May. There is a charming little piece in Dicken's Pickwick Papers where they all go off to a rook shoot but using muzzle loaders. Bullet bows; a crossbow firing a lead ball, were also employed. Wiki seems to have got it a bit muddled as Hollands didn't invent the rook rifle but the .295 or 300 is one of their designs. Think of something around the power of a .32 S&W pistol round. Very collectable. I recently had chance to buy a needle-fire version by James Woodward. Great fun and a whole area of collecting by themselves. Lagopus.....

Two E.M Reilly Rooks from the E.M Reilly line (I thought most Rook rifles were single barrel - learned something:

1st is 1905 - and uses a modified Martini action as most Rooks did in the later days.

35551 -
Name: E.M. Reilly & Co,m 295 Oxford Street, London
Descriptions: A .300 hammer rook-rifle by E.M. Reilly & Co., no. 35551/2959
Sidelever, rebounding hammer, the sides of the action-body with the makers name engraved in a scrolling banner surrounded by bold foliate-scrollwork, much blued finish, figured stock with semi-pistol grip, horn-capped forend, the octagonal barrel, engraved E.M. Reilly & Co., 295 Oxford St., London, with open-sights, sighted for 50, 100 and 150 yards, and bead-foresight
Comment:
https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/17946/lot/42/

Second group though I had in my head was based on a 1855 Patent.

9137 - (1855-59?) (not a Reilly SN)
Address: E.M. Reilly & Co, 502 Oxford St. London
Description: .40 Calibre Break Action Needle Fire Rook Rifle
Comment: this Patent was taken out in 1855. I have a feeling Reilly marketed these guns (see second one below in the late 1850�s. This looks like a Reilly SN but may not be; other makers sold these guns as well.
http://milpas.cc/rifles/ZFiles/Odd%20Fel...2040%20Cal..htm


see another similar Needle Fire gun (no SN) marketed by Edwin C. Green at (on page 8):
http://www.jcmilitaria.com/antique_weapons_rifles.asp?Start=60
image here: http://www.jcmilitaria.com/display_image.asp?ID=10135

Lagopus, have you ever tasted rook ? I would not fancy eating any member of the crow family, horrible things.

Wikipedia is an unreliable source of information, anyone can go on to it and put up or alter information, which is often incorrect or downright false.

I see on classic firearm websites, sale sites and blogs, a lot of rook rifles which have been bored out to .410 shotguns. I had a single barrel rook rifle myself which was bored out to .410 2".

i thought the blackbird of pie fame was actually the blackbird (a relative of the thrush) not a corvid

but then - i have also eaten crow often - at least figuratively

But a 50 caliber rifle for small game?