Ever wonder what the effect of using Briley sub-gauge tubes is on your gun's handling? Following is the data for one gun.
A side-lever Woodward "The Automatic" (rare version of "The Automatic") came up at a London auction and hammered within my price range. It is a neat gun with "thinish" barrel walls. I can shoot it with light, low pressure loads. However, memory serving, I recalled a set of Briley .410 - 12 bore tubes stashed in the back of my safe. With a wee bit of "adjusting", my 12 bore game gun became a -----? Measurements show the following:
Woodward "The Automatic" 29 1/8" bbls, 14 5/8" LOP, 12 bore, 6# 6 1/4 oz, 4 5/16" balance, unmounted swing 1.31, mounted swing 6.25, Half Weight Radius 9.75.
Woodward "The Automatic" with Briley .410 tubes - 7 # 5 1/4 oz, 5 3/8" balance, unmounted 1.59, mounted 7.91, HWR 10.02.
All of the changes are significant. For sake of brevity, it becomes a different for handling but same fit.
DDA
