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

That Field advertisement is a great find, Gene. Contemporary advertisements are such a great window on the times, and advertising really blossomed in the Victorian period. I would like to know what a £10 Holland gun looked like!

In case anyone was keeping track, all the pinfires I've shown so far have back-action locks. These predominate amongst pinfires, but bar locks were used as well. And so far I've mostly shown single-bite underlever guns (and a few double-bite actions), all inert. The rising stud on the action bar found in the early Lang-type actions did assist in partly opening the barrels and in partly closing the lever on the return journey, without the use of springs. Lefaucheux guns accomplished the same opening/closing assistance with a small angled stud on the barrels, a simpler solution. Snap-actions and spring-assisted actions are coming up next, but before I do so, I'd like to cover one last single-bite underlever gun, to show that they were still in use while other actions became prevalent. It is a bar-lock gun by Joseph Lang.

The IGC Database tells us that Joseph Lang started his apprenticeship in 1812 when he was 14 years old, to William Henry Wilson or Alexander Wilson, at Wilson's Gun and Pistol Warehouse at 1 Vigo Lane, London. Lang became manager of William Henry Wilson's gun dealing business at some time, probably in about 1820, when he would have been 21 years old. By 1823 Lang started to trade as "Joseph Lang, Gun and Pistol Repository" at 7 Haymarket. In May 1826 Lang bought the bankrupt stock of Joseph Manton, and in September 1826 he again advertised the fact that he was the only gun dealer in London who did not deal in "Birmingham and other Country-made guns", an interesting insight into the London trade at the time. In 1828 Joseph Lang married James Purdey's daughter Eliza, further cementing his links with the family. At that time Lang described himself as a gun maker, and in 1852 the firm moved to 22 Cockspur Street, Charing Cross, the year before he started making/marketing his pinfire gun.

Lang's pinfire guns might have been slow to attract attention in Britain, but he achieved acclaim and popularity in France, and Lang was given a First Class Medal at the 1855 Paris Exhibition for the quality of the workmanship of his pinfire guns. He was also given a medal at the 1862 International Exhibition in London, again for his pinfire guns. While Lang was appointed gun maker to His Imperial Highness the Grand Duke Michael Mikhailovich of Russia (grandson of Tsar Nicholas I of Russia), he never received a royal appointment in his home country. On 21 December 1868 Joseph Lang died, aged 71. The name of the business did not change until 1874, when it became Joseph Lang & Son, rather a long time after the fact. There were a number of subsequent changes in ownership and name, too many to include here, and the firm continues today under the name Atkin Grant & Lang.

When Henry Jones's patent for the double-bite screw grip action lapsed in September 1862, any maker could build it royalty-free, and they did so in ever increasing numbers. The double-bite action was definitely stronger than the earlier single-bite design, but the single-bite action was certainly strong enough for the black powder cartridges of the period, and some makers continued to make effective use of single-bite designs. Today's gun is a good example of this, a 12-bore single-bite rotary underlever sporting gun, serial number 3245, made in 1867 for J. M. Hasel Esq. (delivered on 7 August). The 29 7/8" damascus barrels have London proofs, the top rib is signed "J. Lang 22 Cockspur Street London," and the bar-action locks are signed "J. Lang." Perhaps Lang continued to make single-bite guns on the premise they were sufficiently strong. Being a gun with bar locks from a renowned maker, this was hardly a cheap gun, but without seeing more examples of Lang pinfires it is impossible to know if this is a typical Lang gun for 1867 or not. This particular gun has seen a lot of use, it has a broken hammer screw and a broken cross-key, and the bores are pitted. A later owner ("Gammon") stamped their name on the stock. It weighs 6 lb 12 oz.