doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Holts March 2024

Shhh.

On the question of English vs. US auctions, my general sense is that auction (and dealer retail) prices are better in England, even considering import costs and currency fluctuations. This is especially true for rare or high-condition English guns. That is a gross generalization that does not hold in all circumstances, of course. However, consider that the US auction house is primarily selling US made guns and if they offer English guns at all it is 5% of what they sell on a given auction day. Holts or Lonsdale's, for example sell 90% English guns and so the quantities and available and range of condition/configuration options are far superior.

And US houses can sell UK guns that don't meet British proof standards..Gil

Very true

And Gil's point is?

More safeguards in buying from a UK auction which must by British law adhere to rules of proof standards rather than US auctions which can legally sell an out of proof British gun. Gil

The Brits sell thousands of "in proof" guns that have thin barrel walls that I would find unacceptable. The Brits find grinding barrels from the inside and the outside acceptable behavior. That said, I very much enjoy reading the Holt's auction lists.

I did attend the sale rather than my usual online as I was more than interested in a few of the Scottish guns but when Simon R had most of those I was keen on laid out in the TGS video a few days before I just knew that silly prices were going to be the order of the day. The Harkom boxlock in my opinion went for crazy money especially as on physical inspection, and to my eye at least, the 12b is far less pretty than the 16 or 20 - the same distinctive carved fences but too 'bulky' for me.

The Dicksons attracted attention as always but I was amazed when the "Dickson and Son' 16b boxlock non-ejector hammered at 1300 GBP (plus fees) against an estimate of 3-500 especially as it was not a Dickson made gun and according to some, guns marked as such weren't even retailed by John Dickson & Son.

The W J Jeffery boxlock ejector was nice, the first time I'd really looked at one. It had long-ish barrels, a file cut rib and 2 3/4" chambers. For me at least it felt a good weight, with good LoP and even with the 'lefty' swept triggers I could see it would make a nice all round gun for clays and game use.

Now to the sealed bids....:)

Dan R,

How did the sidelever Dickson RA look? The barrels seemed rough from the description.

Ken

Ken,

I didn't spend a lot of time looking it over as I felt it was bound to be beyond my budget. It had definitely seen a fair bit of use but seemed to be in pretty original condition with no obvious signs of having been mucked about with. The barrels were much as described in the catalogue but in the hands of one of the Dickson experts in my part of the world I think that any issues it has could be put right without too much trouble. As to the need ultimately for re-barrelling I defer to their expert eyes on that. It will be interesting to see where/if it appears at some point in the future.

The Dickson sidelock was of more interest to me. It was loose on the action, the safety was sticking and of course the right hand barrel was very marginal (almost out of proof). I thought at the estimate of 1-1.5k it was worth investing the significant sum needed to put it right but not for me at GBP 2800 (GBP 3640 with fees). I'd rather put more money into finding a much better barrelled example.

D.