doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Grant Side Levers?

Another question. Who made the first side lever? Are there actual benefits? How about for a lefty? How are they actually supposed to be used?

I can try to answer your question as to who made the first side lever doubles. These would all have been pinfires, made when all manner of fastening mechanisms were being invented and produced. While they all do an adequate job of holding down the barrels, there is quite a range to the strength of these mechanisms, and not all are practical.

The best-known of the early side lever actions is probably JD Dougall�s �Lockfast� patent of 1860. Like all inert �slide and drop� actions, it is a bit slow in the field and takes some getting used to, but it is strong. The first Lockfast had a lever that was lifted, though most had levers that were depressed downward (I have one dating from 1864). Of the side levers tensioned with a spring, J. Needham�s action of 1862 would have been amongst the first of that type. It is somewhat awkward in that the lever is hinged near the breech face, and pushing or pulling it downward is not a natural motion (at least not to me). The spring is an improvement, though. I have a John Blissett pinfire with the Needham lever, dating from around 1863-1864. Finally, the S. & J. Law patent of 1865 was a proper snap side lever, but with a very long throw (and it has a bit of a flimsy feel to it). There were a number of variations on these actions, but I haven�t seen or tried them in my hands. The 'classic' side lever guns, by Stephen Grant and others, and the various side-cocking actions, appeared much later, starting in the very late 1870s and into the 1880s, almost 20 years after the first pinfire side levers.

The gun pictured is a 12-bore dual pinfire-centrefire gun by The Breech Loading Armoury Company (Limited) of London, made before 1868, with the S. & J. Law patent action.

Fine work of art...rib looks loose in the pic.

It�s just a bit of discolouration, Joe, the rib is solid.

I've been curious about side-levers for quite awhile. Somehow they always made sense and as you know from previous post, just purchased a Reilly Side-Lever SN 27553 (1885).



I went back to look at my Reilly database which has pics of just about every extant Reilly (Reilly made just about every type of action). Here are the two earliest ones:

No SN mentioned, pinefire - has to be mid-1860's:


SN 17392 (Which would date to late 1871-early 1872)(one of Terry Buffum's guns):


The earliest Reilly advertisement which specifically mentions "side-lever" however is 1877 Bradshaw guide to the Tyrol:

Found this interesting quote while reading up on E.C. Hodges: - it appears E.C. Hodges invented the side-lever (modern "as we know it") in 1871 and Grant took it to another level:

http://hodgesgunmakers.yolasite.com/ec-hodges.php

Looking at the above photos I see similarity to Needhams side lever and a gun that looks like a Scott ,but never seen a side lever version .This could be that actions were bought from one maker and finished by another.

There were numerous patents , provisional and full , improved patents , people claiming patents and those marking actions as patent even if it was not their patent . Add in that there were many short loved actions and those that copied patented actions , where the patent had expired or never taken beyond a provisional . It is fact that many patents granted at this time would not really have stood up to a court case as they were merely slight modifications of others .
As to the advantages or disadvantages the fact that they went out of use almost entirely says something for there popularity .
That said if you have missing or damaged thumb a side lever can be the answer to your problems it can be used with the heel of the hand as can be for a left handed person who finds a conventional top lever difficult.

very nice guns.

Sidelevers work just wonderfully for us southpaws as your thumb just moves forward a bit to open the gun. I've always wanted one but never found the right one. Someday maybe. Argo44, your Reilly looks just lovely.

Reilly didn�t make any of those guns or those actions Argo pictured. Two of them are 100% W&C Scott�s and one is JD Dougall lockfast, an action Dougalls patented, produced and sold to the trade along with complete guns.
The Scott hammerless is built on the Scott-Baker parent and was only produced by Scott. The hammer Scott is a basic Scott trade action, used by many gunmakers and retailers.