========================================================================================
30358 side lever pigeon gun (Diggory) and 303xx side lever pigeon gun (Lubzinzski), both early 1889;
May 1889 -The end of the side lever?

Diggory has an interesting Reilly side-lever, hammer-gun pigeon gun for sale on his site SN 30358:
https://www.vintageguns.co.uk/gun-sales/reilly
[Linked Image from jpgbox.com]
[Linked Image from jpgbox.com]


Terry Lubzinski posted his similar Reilly S-L lever hammer-gun pigeon gun, SN 303xx, several years ago:
http://www.doublegunshop.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=191402&page=all
[Linked Image from jpgbox.com]
[Linked Image from jpgbox.com]

Remarkable similarities in the guns, design, engraving, layout, Whitworth steel barrels, weight. Both were made at 277 Oxford Street. But Terry's allegedly still has a Paris address on the barrels (Reilly closed 2 rue Scribe in early August 1985) and still has "not for ball" on the proof marks (discontinued in 1887). Odd stuff.

Why was Reilly making so many side-levers at the time? Perhaps because he would't have to pay for the A&D Box-Lock patent (which incidentally expired in May 1889)? (Or it could just be that some pigeon competitors preferred hammer guns without a top lever?)

Comment: Reilly undercut his competitors on cost and rapidity of delivery. If you had to add several shillings to the cost of a gun for a patent like the A&D box lock, it took its toll on sales volume. There are no extant side-lever Reilly's that can be found so far after 1889 and the expiration of the A&D patent. Thus these two guns, early -1889 per the chart, may possibly be sorts of sanity-check markers for the year 1889.

Incidentally 30768 is the last Reilly with an A&D Box-Lock patent use number dated per the chart to May 1889. It is mentioned in the chart as a "marker sanity check."
30768 - E.M. Reilly & Co., 16 New Oxford Street, London. 12 ga. Shotgun SxS. BLE. A&D patent use #8245 (PAY's gun)(A&D Patent expired May 1889)

Edit: I have been corrected by very knowledgable members of this board. An A&D box-lock can indeed sport a side lever. I had always assumed a top-lever went with Box-Lock sort of like Tom with Jerry.

Last edited by Argo44; 12/03/21 03:44 PM.
Baluch are not Brahui, Brahui are Baluch