doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com The pinfire game gun

Wonderful find, AaronN, I had wondered how a gun with a British address could have wholly foreign proofs -- now I know. Assuming Gustave Masu learned his lesson and didn't repeat the offence, the Bastin action gun would have likely been sold before March 1866. As the name of the firm changed to Masu Brothers in 1865, this narrows down the dating of the gun. Every piece of information helps.

Here's another example of piecing together the puzzle of the pinfire timeline. Probably the more famous configuration for early British breech-loaders is the "lever over guard," whereby the lever to disengage the barrels is rear-facing and follows the contour of the trigger guard bow. It is probably the first picture that comes to mind when you think of a pinfire game gun, as this configuration was the most commonly produced. While lever-over-guard guns are typically referred to as "Jones type actions," not all of them are based on his design. Henry Jones patented his double-bite screw grip action in 1859 (patent no. 2040), but he famously let the patent lapse in late 1862 thereby allowing almost all makers to copy it freely from that date onwards. But Jones was not the first to use the lever-over-guard, and single-bite actions with this feature pre-date the Jones patent, and many single-bite actions were built well into the 1870s and later, as has already been commented on.

The truth is, this quintessential British design is not British at all, but French. And furthermore, it may have been around since at least the 1840s, if not a bit earlier. Beatus Beringer, a gunmaker of Paris and St. Etienne, obtained 29 patents in the 1830s and 1840s, almost all dealing with breech-loading. The "Système Beringer" allowed his guns to fire either pinfire cartridges or percussion caps and loose powder (with special removable breech chambers). Furthermore, his guns functioned on the basis of a rearward-facing under-lever, whose shape formed the trigger guard bow. His rearward under-lever may also have been built to align with a fixed trigger guard, as to this day the lever-over-guard in France is known as the Beringer action.

I believe John Blanch may have been the first to offer a lever-over-guard gun to the British shooting community. While I have no certain evidence of this, my belief is led by the fact Blanch went to the trouble of purchasing directly or indirectly a Beringer gun (no. 2359), in 1855. The proof is a photograph copy of the receipt, dug up by Argo44 in his Reilly research, and kindly passed on to me. The pinfire was a French invention, so why not look to the French for ideas on how to build them? It would make sense that British makers would get their hands on competitors' guns, and take them apart to analyse them in detail. Blanch was one of the very first promoters of the pinfire system in Britain, with Reilly and Lang. He, as others, were building Lang-type guns with the forward under-lever (Blanch's offered his first pinfire in 1856, a Lang-type forward-under-lever). Perhaps he wanted to improve upon the design and offer his clientele something different. He must have been aware of the different design -- why else would he choose a Beringer for study, rather than an original Lefaucheux? I admit this is conjecture, but the 1855 Beringer receipt is, I believe, a significant part of the story of the pinfire in Britain. How soon after 1856 Blanch may have built a lever-over-guard gun is an open question, but he would have known how to make one.

In trying to determine when the first lever-over-guard guns appeared, it would seem logical that they would be based on the first design, the Lang single-bite, assisted stud opener. It would be the same action, but with the direction and rotation of the lever reversed (on a right-handed forward-under-lever, the locking lug rotates clockwise; on the rearward lever-over-guard, the locking lug rotates counter-clockwise). Here is one that fits this description, a single-bite, assisted stud opener action with the lever-over-guard, by William Moore & Co., number 1159A. William Moore was one of the most highly regarded makers in London and Birmingham. I have no means to verify its date, but I would not be surprised to learn it is an early gun, around 1860. It is a relatively standard gun for its time, not of "Best" quality but certainly not an inexpensive gun. It does have a few flourishes, such as the under-lever that is shaped to fill the space in front of the trigger guard bow, fences with prominent raised edges around the pin holes, and a raised button on the trigger guard bow to centre the under-lever when closed. Most importantly, it is a perfect copy of Lang's design, but with the reversed underlever. The barrel rib is signed "W. M. & Co.," as are the lock plates. Though cryptic today, at the time everyone knew the Moore name.







Originally a stocker for Joseph Manton, in 1829 William Moore set up his own stock making business in Birmingham, and became a gunmaker shortly after that. In 1836 the name of the firm changed to William Moore & Co. Moore also entered into a number of partnerships in addition to operating his own business. In 1838 he entered into partnership with William Harris, creating the firm of Moore & Harris at 35 Loveday Street. In 1847 Moore and William Patrick Grey entered into a partnership and operated as Wm Moore & Grey. Grey's son, Frederick Hargrave Grey, apprenticed to Moore. In 1854 William Moore & Co moved to 43 Old Bond Street, London, and Moore and Grey started to trade from this address as well, as William Moore & Grey. It appears that guns marked Wm Moore & Co were mainly export guns with a different serial number range (which might be one explanation for the "A" in the serial number). In 1861 Frederick Beesley, a name that would become famous later, was apprenticed to William Moore & Co.

William Moore may have died in 1864. The fame of the William Moore name was such that it frequently appeared in the 1860s onwards on low-quality Belgian guns, with exporters hoping to dupe buyers into believing they were purchasing a recognised name. What is confusing is that real Moore guns might be signed William Moore, Wm Moore & Co, W. M. & Co, Moore & Harris, William Moore & Grey, or William Moore, Grey & Co.