doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Who made the actions (British)

Even though there were hundreds if not thousands of "gun makers" in England, Scotland, and Ireland it seems most did not make the actions but purchased them in the white. Actions were quite complex and small shops seldom had the machinery, time, or skill to produce them. Let's try to compile a list of known action makers. I'll begin with my short list. Please add to it.

E.C. Hodges
Joseph Brazier (Ashes)
W. & C. Scott
W. W. Greener
A. A. Brown
Purdey
Holland & Holland
Westley Richards
Boss
BSA
Peter Webley

Joe-

Interesting question. Thank you for bringing it up.

What about forgings VS actions?

I would bet that Henry Atkin, Stephen Grant, James Woodward, Joseph Lang, John Dickson, William Powell, Alex Henry and many other companies filed up their own actions from raw forgings - at least on their signature, top-quality guns.

I wonder about the forgings, though. There must have been just a few companies supplying those to the trade.

OWD

"Incredibly complex" is not how I would describe a double shotgun action. Even the most sophisticated self opener, the Beesley action, is fairly simple compared to other mechanical apparatus, like a watch, for instance.

Gunmakers have convinced their public that their product is complex to justify an upward spiralling price.

A Ferrari is incredibly complex, and goes for 150 USD a kilo, while a comparatively simple SXS best sidelock goes for 50 000 USD per kilo.

Fogings were beyond the scope of gunmakers, requiring heavy machiney and an industrial location. Some machining was done in house. Greener mentions and advocates the use of machine tools.

In later years the machining was outsourced and some firms made a name as the suppliers of machined actions to the "trade". I think the most famous of them were Philipsons. Speaking from personal experience I saw cast Dickson receives displayed by a Dutch investment casting firm in a defence exhibit. The same firm, if I recall, had castings of the Greener GP receiver.

The arrival of CNC machines, which are enclosed, therefoe quieter and cleaner, have brought machining back in house.

A few names that come to mind are

W.R. Pape of Necastle-on-Tyne
Armstrong " " " "
C.W. Ebrall of Shrewsbury
George Higham Liverpool
W Richards "
Trulock & Harris Dublin

I have a Joseph Lang hammer gun made in 1883, which has the back of the action stamped with the mark of Richard Redman. Redman was very prolific in making forgings/in the white actions for the gun trade.

Dickson built some A&D guns and all Round actions in house. Rigby did as well with the rising bite.

Of all the books I�ve read on the English shotgun that is one well kept secret. However, if you tear the action apart there has to be a name or initials in there somewhere. But, should rough forgings supplied by an unknown shop even be considered in the process or should only the action maker and the action filer be recognized? Or neither?
What about in the muzzleloading period. Did the known makers rely EXCLUSIVELY on trade locks or were they too purchased as rough forgings and filed by one shop then sold finished by a third shop??

It's all just dreamed up speculation at best.

Seems like a question for Hillary Clinton...

And her answer would be "WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE"

SKB, I know you have been working on these guns a long time and are highly qualified but where would a layman, like me, find out that kind of information? The reason I ask is I've always said that John Dickson & Son build their own round actions but couldn't prove it. I'm thinking that you have over the years torn a these guns apart and have seen for yourself that no other hand other than Dickson was involved.

Shotgunlover-

Yeah - we know, there's nothing to it, it's all just a big swindle.

Then you show us that "thing" you developed/made. Cruder than a single shot H&R, and not nearly as practical or useful.

There appears to be a huge gap between saying and doing...

OWD