...
Addendum to "lesson learned"..
The gun which preceeded the Lang pair of my late friend has been
a J. Nowotny/Prague. I found and bought it in the shop in Narodni Street in 1980. A 16/65 bore, sidelock ejector, a beauty of a
Prague-Best gun with gorgeous engraving and a blond/black
marbled stock, the nr. 3 of a trio.The shopmanager disclosed me
the vendor, I visited him in the country side. A young man who
told me that the gun is from his late father and he has no idea
on the whereabouts of the pairing 2 and 3.
When I moved to Paris in 1982 I put it on the market and it landed
at this my friend, the start of a life-long friendship, which
ended 3 years ago with his passing away.
He has been a novice-hunter and the Nowotny his first best-grade
one.
As a habit with many novice-hunters, he was keen to extend/
improve on the killing power/range of the gun.
He moved to/tried the 2 3/4 cartridge, with fatal effect.
The action withstood it but the choke bulged.
A gunsmith cut the bulged barrel-part and and the gun was sold.
Lesson learned: Do not extend/enlarge the chamber.
The destruction of this Nowotny barrel has confirmed me in
my ultra-orthodox position of an anti-elongation apostle,
in contrast to the prevailing mainstream to elongate to the
more cosily available 2 3/4 cartridge.
The allmighty Purdey used for their 2 3/4 chambered guns
a wider action than for the 2 1/2.
There has been more game bagged with the 2 1/2 ubiquitous
Eley-Grand-Prix type of cartridge than with anyting else -
at least in Europe.
What has been found out by pre-WW II generations of gun makers
to be the best implementation should not be ruined by
quasi-DIY modifications.
Even if the gun passes proof on the chamber extension and the
choke does not bulge, it will become loose and off the face
sooner or later.
Nick Holt has in his march auction a pair of leightweight
Purdey's of 2,83 kg and solid barrelmeasurements.
I have shot for a couple of years a 2,78 kg 27" Purdey
without undue recoil and with "perfect" killing/power.
Probably just perfect shot pattern/distribution.
These Purdey-folks knew how to build shotguns.
It would be complete nonsense to extend such guns to
2 3/4.
...
There is matter which is worse than extending chamber length
in a shotgun.
It is called converting a vintage rifle calibre to a more cosily
available current rifle calibre.
Once more its Nick Holt who has in his march auction a couple
of English double bore rifles of Indian provenance .
I believe the ancestors of the English gunmakers will rotate
in their graves when realizing that items of
Anglo/Indian world rifle cultural heritage have been
mutilated to Teutonic calibres of 7x65R or 9,3x74R.
Converted by Ferlach-gurus and prooved in London to create
the "Schimäre" of genuine London-work.
Why then at all ?
In the sermo of a London dealer "I can sell a 9,3x74R for
1 KGBP higher than with the original English vintage
calibre". In German just "Schnöder Mammon".
What is still missing in this undertaking is to fit
the still operational Maharaja-Rolls-Royce-Shooting-Brake
with BMW car-tyres.
I am aware that my orthodox attitude may be a
provocation to the dealer-folks, who make a living
on buying and selling vintage guns and rifles.
...
Felix Neubeger

Last edited by felix; 03/17/18 01:20 PM.