On this rainy, glum day, my spirits are brightened by seeing this thread has been viewed some 100,000 times. That this is far beyond my expectations is a major understatement.

Trying to understand the pinfire game gun, its role in firearm history and its place in Victorian society, has led me to search through many contemporary writings. Obviously I can't go back in time, but there is no need -- the writers of the day recorded their observations on the printed page. In this thread there have been a number of quoted passages from sportsmen and gunmakers, relevant to the discussion. But there are many others, and these shed light on the gunmaker's world and that of the shooting enthusiast. For today, here is a clipping from none other than Charles Dickens.

That he would be familiar with the subject should not be a surprise, as he lived for a while on London's High Holborn Street, a stone's throw from the establishments of John Blissett, Parker, Field & Sons, and others, and he moved in high society circles, the kind of people that had shooting estates. Dickens published a weekly literary magazine, All The Year Round, in which he serialized several of his works, and that of other notable writers. The magazine also published articles on varied subjects, and while authorship of the various articles is not known, Dickens was known to have vetted (and corrected) everything that was published within its pages. In the July 30 issue of 1864, a useful and informative article was published under the title "Gunning". Reproduced below is the text concerning gunmaking, the cost of guns, and yes, the pinfire, while omitting the sections on shooting manors, gamekeeping and dogs, and finishing with advice to not party too hard before a day's shooting (!).

GUNNING is my theme; not the patronymic of those three beautiful sisters who fired the hearts (if the dried-up integuments can be so called) of the court gentlemen in the time of the Regent, but the great art of shooting; on English manor or Scottish moor, from the back of a pony or the bows of a punt, in solitary ramble or grand battue; indulged in by My lord with his party of friends, his keepers, his gillies, and his beaters, by Bill Lubbock the poacher, known to the keepers as an “inweterate” with his never-missing double-barrel and his marvellous lurcher, or by Master Jones home for the holidays from Rugby, who has invested his last tip in a thirty-shilling Birmingham muzzle-loader, with which he “pots” sparrows in the Willesden fields. Gunning, which binds together men of otherwise entirely opposite dispositions and tastes, which gives many a toiler in cities pent such healthful excitement and natural pleasure as enable him to get through the eleven dreary months, hanging on to the anticipation of those thirty happy days when the broad stubble-fields will stretch around him, and the popping of the barrels make music in his ear; gunning, a sport so fascinating, that to enjoy it men in the prime of life, with high-sounding titles and vast riches, will leave their comfort able old ancestral homes, and the pleasant places in which their lines have been cast, and go away to potter for weeks in a miserable little half-roofed shanty, on a steaming barren Highland moor, or will risk life and limb in grim combat with savage animals in deadly jungle or dismal swamp. Gunning, whose devotees are numbered by myriads, the high priest whereof is Colonel Peter Hawker, of glorious memory, who has left behind him an admirable volume of instruction in the art. Not unto me to attempt to indue me with the seven-league gaiters of that great man; not unto me to attempt to convey hints, “wrinkles,” or “dodges” to the regular gunner: mine be it simply to discourse on the inner life of the art, showing what can be done, in what manner, and for how much, and giving certain practical information in simple and concise form to the neophyte.

And first to be mentioned in a treatise, how ever humble, on gunning, are guns. A muzzle-loading double gun by a first-class London maker costs forty guineas; or, with its cases and all its fittings, fifty guineas. The leading provincial makers, and those of Scotland and Ireland, charge from thirty to forty pounds complete; most of their guns are, however, in reality manufactured in Birmingham, where the price of a double gun varies from twenty pounds to two pounds five shillings, or even less, according to quality. The second class London makers charge from twenty-five to thirty-five pounds, but most of their work is made at Birmingham, and only “finished” in London. The London work is much the best; for, as the wages paid are much higher, London attracts the best workmen from all parts of the country. Another reason, is the greater independence of the workmen in London. In Birmingham especially, between trade agreements on the part of the masters, and trade unions on the part of the men, a man who can work better or more quickly than his fellows is continually hampered, and he generally makes his way to London, where he finds a fairer market for his labour, and fewer restrictions. The situation of Birmingham, near to the coal producing districts, renders the cost of fuel much less than in London, and all the operations which require a large expenditure of fuel, such as the welding and forging of the barrels, &c., are done at Birmingham, even for best guns, and it is frequently asked, since all the materials, barrels, &c., come from Birmingham, why pay the much higher prices of London makers for the same thing? meaning that as the London makers get their barrels (the chief portion of the gun) from Birmingham, the prices they charge are extortionate. Now, what the London barrel-maker really does get from Birmingham is simply two rough tubes of wrought iron, not fit m their then condition even to serve as gas-pipes. All that makes them of any value as gun-barrels— the boring, filing, putting together for shooting, &c. — has to be done in London, at four times the cost, and generally with ten times the accuracy, of Birmingham work. The fallacy lies in supposing that “the same thing” is obtained in both cases. If what a man buys when he purchases a gun be merely the six pounds of wrought iron and steel in the barrel and locks, and the half a foot of walnut plank in the stock, the value of these materials at twenty pounds a ton for the metal and a shilling a foot for the wood is less than five shillings for the whole, and he may well consider he is overcharged if he pay a pound for the complete gun. But what he buys is really the time and technical skill of the contriver, the time and skill of the workman, the waste of manufacture (and how enormous this frequently is, may be judged from the fact that ninety pounds of rough metal will be consumed in making a pair of Damascus gun- barrels weighing about six pounds when finished): these are the real things purchased, and whether the buyer pay ten or fifty pounds, he will generally get only the value of his money, and no more. Skill and time can never be brought to the same close competition as the price of raw material, and the tendency of both is to become dearer instead of cheaper every day.

During the last four or five years the use of breech-loading guns has become common in England. The system adopted is called the “Lefaucheux,” from the name of its inventor, and it has been general in France for many years. Twenty-five years ago some guns of this pattern were brought from Paris by Mr. Wilkinson of Pall Mall, who endeavoured to introduce their use into England, but without success; and they were finally sold at one-fourth their cost, as curiosities only. The price of breech-loading guns of best quality is five guineas more than muzzle-loaders; they are sold in Birmingham at from eight pounds to thirty pounds. The advantages of a breech-loader to young sports men are, principally, that the guns cannot be over-loaded, two charges cannot go into the same barrel, the charge can be taken out in an instant, and though, if the gunner be clumsy he may shoot a friend, he cannot by any possibility shoot himself. This little distinction is highly appreciated, since accidents in loading from the muzzle were by no means unfrequent.

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Finally, do not imagine that you can leave the London season, the jolly nights in the Club smoke-room, the heavy dinners with ingoted East Indian uncles, the twenty-one dances winding up with a never-ending cotillon, indulged in night after night; and then go down to Norfolk, or wherever may be the manor to which you are invited, and shoot. The thing is impossible; you must be, to a certain extent, in training; at all events, your wind must be decent, your muscles braced, and your hand and eye steady. A long waltz may be good for your wind, but it will shake your arm; and a pipe of Cavendish or a couple of extra cigars will spoil your sport for the day. So do not be down-hearted at first if you fire wild, or if the squire and his country friends grin a hit as the birds fly away unharmed: wait; let your faith be “large in Time,” as Mr. Tennyson has it; and very soon you will feel your hand getting in, and you will find that, as sweet Will, who has something on everything, says, “Your shooting then is well accounted.”

[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]

Last edited by Steve Nash; 04/30/21 03:43 PM.