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

Those cartridges are a remarkable find, AaronN, and the information in the advert is intriguing.

Staying on the subject of muzzle-loaders converted to the pinfire system, here is a single-barrel game gun with a repurposed barrel.

We tend to think of single-barreled guns as being inexpensive meat guns, beginner guns, youth guns, and at the other extreme, extra-fancy trap guns. The Victorians also had a varied relationship with single-shot guns, which generally fell within one of several categories. There were the mighty punt and market guns for shooting at rafts of waterfowl; light game guns for shooters with slight frames; specialty guns for natural history collectors on their countryside walks; concealable poachers' guns; and guns re-built around a particularly treasured barrel. The cost of a single-barrel gun was not much less than for a double, so unless there was a specific request, few were made. New single-barrel guns built to order will be the subject for another day.

Before the days of choke, a barrel that shot well and true was highly prized, and muzzle-loaders were often believed to shoot better than the early breech-loaders (rightly or wrongly). It is not much of a stretch to picture someone who did not want to lose the patterning quality of their muzzle-loader, asking a gunmaker to build a new breech-loader around that barrel. Some gunmakers specialized in conversions, one of these being Thomas George Sylven of London. He had begun as a journeyman gunsmith in Scotland, making guns for established makers (he worked a short distance from John Dickson and Joseph Harkom, amongst others). He set up his own business in London in 1863, at 33 Leicester Square and 10 Panton Street, Haymarket, and later moving to 44 Bedford Street, Strand, in 1865.

Around this time he built gun number 399 for a client who wanted to re-use the barrel of a muzzle-loading gun built by Richard Seffens, a gunmaker who was in business at 5 St James, Haymarket, from 1820-1825, and at 10 Orange St, Leicester Square, between 1826-1829. Perhaps that gun had sentimental value, or was just a fine-shooting gun. In any case the client wanted to extend the life of the gun while following the latest fashion. The result is quite balanced, and other than the hexagon shaping of the barrel base and the inscribed top barrel flat, you wouldn't know it was a conversion.

The barrel is 29 13/16" in length, and the action is an unmarked Jones-type double-bite screw grip. It has a number of attractive flourishes, with a prominent percussion fence, an extended top strap, and a toed-in 'dolphin' hammer nose with a stylised cap guard. The back-action lock is signed "Thos Sylven London" within an acanthus cartouche, and the overall condition is very good, with much original colour present. The barrel still has a mirror bore, with only light pitting at the breech. The gun weighs 6 lb 1 oz.

The butt has a skeleton plate, a feature commonplace on later guns but very uncommon on a pinfire. Contrary to muzzle-loaders, pinfires did not have to be held with the butt on the ground for loading. Muzzle-loaders had iron butt plates to protect the stock during this procedure, and this characteristic feature carried over unnecessarily into most pinfire guns. Some makers started experimenting with wood butts, chequered or plain, heel-and-toe caps, skeleton plates, and horn, all of which were common from the 1870s onwards.