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

Since this thread started, I've learned a few more things and made new friends. Thanks to two remarkable gentlemen, I've obtained an early James Purdey pin-fire, shown below.

One of the many reasons I am interested in mid-Victorian British gunmaking is the remarkable ingenuity and creativity on display. Everything we take for granted in modern break-open shotguns appeared then, from centre-fire cartridges to extractors to choke-boring and the numerous action types that ultimately settled into the top lever and sliding underbolt design. But though all of these are standard today to the point of not being given a second thought, the best ideas were not necessarily apparent then. There are reasons for this. Shooters did not change guns easily; they were expensive, and once you found a gun that shot well, you stuck with it. My research into the writings of the day has shown me that back then, the barrels (and their shooting qualities) counted for 99% of a gun's perceived value – with the rest being the gun's action, decoration, and stock figure, if these were considered at all. Actions were judged on their strength, ease of use, and potential for failing at inopportune moments, not their ingenuity. Quality was generally taken for granted, and guns of a given price tended to be equal in build and finish. No one had a monopoly on quality; for the most part, the various makers in places like London and Birmingham shared the same outworkers. Parts often came from the same sources, be they barrel tubes, locks, etc. Inventiveness paid off in patented designs that could be promoted by word-of-mouth, patronage, or print advertising. And even then, such designs were not necessarily exclusive, as one maker could use another's design and pay a royalty. Common then, not so much now. Try going into a Ford dealership and asking them to supply their product but with a Honda engine…

So, with slow product turnover, ideas and designs did not radiate quickly. Patents could be maintained for many years and renewed. The gunmaking business (and it was a business, just as it is today) gradually gravitated towards easy-to-make, reliable designs to squeeze the most profit. The boxlock double gun is the epitome of this evolution. The action was invented in 1875 by William Anson, foreman of Westley Richards' gun action department, and John Deeley, the managing director of Westley Richards. Add to this a top lever, patented by William Middleditch Scott in 1865, which moves a spindle and cam. When rotated, the lever withdraws a horizontally sliding bolt that unlocks the barrels, allowing the gun to open. For the sliding bolt, two slots (or bites) were found to be far structurally sounder than a single one, with one slot closer to the hinge and the other close to the breech face. This latter invention by James Purdey dates from 1863, and the patent for it expired in 1877, explaining why almost all boxlocks made after this date have this locking mechanism. The story of the Purdey sliding underbolt is intrinsically linked to the evolution of the pin-fire game gun.

The Purdey gunmaking family line started in the 1700s. The founder of the firm we know today, James Purdey (the Elder), was born in 1784 to a gunmaking father, who had learned the trade from his father, having moved from Scotland around 1690. In 1798, the London gunmaker Thomas Keck Hutchinson took on 14-year-old James as an apprentice for seven years. In 1805, Purdey began work as a stocker for Joseph Manton, and in 1808, he worked as a stocker and lock filer for the Forsyth Patent Gun Co. On 31 December 1812, James Purdey became a Freeman of the Gunmakers Company, and in 1816, he set up a shop and workshop with an apprentice at 4 Princes Street, Leicester Square. Around 1820, the firm became a member of The Society of Master Gunmakers of Westminster. At this time, Purdey made guns under his name and for other gunmakers, notably Joseph Lang and Charles Lancaster. Purdey also ran a good business in second-hand guns. In 1826, the business moved to Oxford Street. In 1838, Queen Victoria started buying guns from Purdey. In 1843, James Purdey took on his son, James, as an apprentice. In 1853, James (the Elder) retired, and his son, age 29 (and since then known as James the Younger), took over the business. In 1857, possibly 1858, Purdey built its first pin-fire gun, but very few were made. These would have been made according to Joseph Lang's design (who was, after all, James the Elder's son-in-law), with a short forward-facing underlever and a single-bite attachment. In 1860, James Purdey (the Younger) became a Freeman of the Gunmakers Company and bought the business outright. In 1861, the firm made 41 pin-fires, all built on sliding-barrel actions from the Bastin Brothers of Hermalle-sous-Argenteau, Liège, Belgium. The actions were purchased in-the-white and made into guns at the Oxford Street premises. Also, in 1861, James took out the first Purdey patent for a pin-fire cartridge turnover machine, the first genuinely effective design.

While the Bastin action was good, the user had to manually operate the lever to close the action, as with all other actions at the time. The Frenchman François Eugène Schneider appears to have come up with the first snap underlever, patented in October 1860, and the design was acquired by George H. Daw in 1861 and immediately improved for the Daw centre-fire breech-loader that first appeared in late 1861. The advantage of a spring-assisted action that secured the barrels upon closing was quickly appreciated, and a flurry of snap-action patents began to appear. In order by patent date (which is only a rough guide), Thomas Horsley brought out an action with a spring-tensioned trigger-guard lever in February 1862; Joseph Needham patented his snap side-lever in May 1862; the first top-lever snap action was Westley Richards' pull-lever of September 1862; and J.W.P. Field's snap underlever was patented in December 1862. James Purdey followed suit, obtaining a patent for his double-bite snap action in May 1863, with a sliding underbolt linked to a peculiar thumb-operated lever in the trigger guard. This patent is the one illustrated here. Eventually, Purdey married his double-bite underbolt with W. M. Scott's top-lever (which Scott patented in October 1865), creating what became the general standard action for double guns to this day.

Let's have a closer look at Purdey's patent No. 1104. The bolt is operated by a long under-lever hinged at the front, which is grasped through a wide bifurcated trigger guard; both the bolt and lever are spring tensioned. This is the version correctly known as the first-pattern thumb-hole under-lever patent. In February 1865, the design was much improved with a lever hinged immediately in front of the trigger guard and a single spring to tension the lever and bolt; that one is the second-pattern thumb-hole under-lever. As the design quickly improved, few examples of the first pattern were made. The second-pattern thumb-hole action survived well into the central-fire period and is popular today. Purdey also built the thumb-hole action for other gunmakers, so various names turn up on thumb-hole action guns.

How many first-pattern thumb-hole guns were made in the 18 or so months between the first gun and the appearance of the second pattern? I don't know; it couldn't have been more than a handful. At the time, the weekly newspaper The Field did not speak well of the action, questioning its durability, which would not have been good for sales. But some were made, but here is one of them in its original pin-fire configuration. It is a 12-bore, number 7080, probably one of the last made on the first pattern. It has the famous double bolt of the 1863 patent and has 30" fine damascus barrels inscribed "J. Purdey, 314½, Oxford Street, London." James Lucas would have done the extra fine scroll engraving in-house. At some time in its life, the chequering was re-cut, the gun weighs an even seven pounds, and the bores are lightly pitted.