OK, Im slightly jumping the gun here, as the Ruffed grouse season has just opened in Ontario and I wont be able to go to my favourite spot until later in the week...

Ill be taking this Charles William Lancaster 12-gauge under-lever centre-fire gun, possibly built as a base-fire, with the conical base-fire strikers replaced by normal centre-fire ones. Or it was built as-is to use the early Pottet/Boxer or Schneider/Daw centre-fire cartridges. Ill never know, as the Lancaster order book simply records it as a '12-bore under-lever centre-fire'. The damascus barrels have 2 1/2" chambers and have been nitro-proofed for 1 1/8 oz loads.

This particular gun was built in 1864 for Colonel Sir Thales Pease KCB, and the action is Lancasters 'slide-and-tilt' type, where the underlever moves the barrels forward before they can swing on the hinge. If you havent had the chance to handle one of these, the action face is not at the normal 90 degree angle to the flats. Instead it is at an acute angle, making for a very strong closure once the barrels have slid back into place. Lancaster favoured nose-less hammers, and the locks are non-rebounding.

As to the action design, there is much history behind it. Albert Henry Marie Renette of Paris obtained two French patents in 1820 for exterior-primed (capping breechloader) guns with slide-and-tilt actions, some seven years before Casimir Lefaucheux patented his hinge-action capping breechloading gun, which led the way to his pinfire invention in 1834. In 1853 Renette's son-in-law and partner, Louis Julien Gastinne, obtained French patent No. 9058 for this breech action on a hammer gun, intended to use the new internally-primed centerfire cartridges. The prolific patent agent Auguste Edouard Loradoux Bellford patented the design in Great Britain, receiving patent No. 2778 of 1853. This is the patent that was later assigned to Lancaster and first used for his base-fire cartridge, and the story behind Charles Lancasters Patent marked on his guns though the patent was never taken out in his name.

The end result is a beautifully balanced gun, with measurements that suit me. One hundred and fifty-four years after leaving Lancasters Bond Street shop, it is still in the field!