Westley Richards Falling Block -FIELD'S Pat action

Hello All,

I had been searching high and low for a Daniel Fraser Single Shot Rifle - unfortunately with little success. However, along the way I came across this unique Westley Richards Single Shot Rifle, and I just couldn't pass it up.

It was built on a Field's Patent action in January of 1882. Caliber is 500/450 1-1/2" case. (aka No.1 WR Carbine)

I was somewhat surprised by the similarity of this action to that of the Winchester Hi-Wall action. The lever is underneath on the Winchester, and the lever is on the side on the Field's action. It is interesting to note that the Field's action was patented in 1877, a full year before John Browning designed his Single Shot Hi-Wall action. I wonder if John Browning may have been influenced by the Field's action and only modified that design, rather than inventing his own action.

Specifications of my rifle are: 25" Full Octagon Barrel with a ramrod underneath - 8 pounds 1 oz - 14" LOP - Ivory Diamond Inlays on each side of the grip - 1 standing & 4 Folding Leaf & Ladder Express Site - Right Hand Push Forward Side Lever - Scroll Engraved Receiver - Steel Engraved Butt Plate w/ Trap. (there is some evidence of a vintage stock repair, but it is minor and can only be seen in bright sunlight)

I have spoken with Wal Winfer ("Westley Richards Single Shot Rifles", author) about this rifle's non-typical lever. This rifle has a "straight-vertical" lever, whereas most others have a "serpentine-angular" lever. It was Wal's opinion that the lever on my rifle was an early design as there was much variation of levers in the beginning. He suggested I remove the lever and see if it had a matching serial number - which it did have, stamped on the back.

Although this cartridge seems small, the factory load was 55g black powder under a 380g paper patch bullet for 1300 fps. I have been shooting a 380g lead bullet at slightly over 1400 fps which yields over 1700 ft/lbs muzzle energy. This loading actually exceeds the 45-70 Trapdoor Springfield Carbine Factory load by 150 fps.

I'm very pleased with this rifle's shooting. Apparently the lead paper-patch bullets give a better seal in the bore than the Hornady jacketed bullets based on the higher velocity with the same powder charge.

The lead bullets shot very well, but this load is at maximum and a little too hot for me. Although the cases gave easy extraction, they expanded ever-so-slightly, so that when I inserted a fired case back into the chamber, it required a lot of thumb pushing on the case head before the action would close. By contrast, the cases that fired the jacketed bullets, could be replaced into the chamber without any pushing, and the action would close freely. Next time I'll try reducing the powder charge by 2 grains for the paper patch bullet load.

My actual target follows.

I've been practicing with the rifle with the expectation of using it to bag a Wisconsin Whitetail Deer this Fall. I am finding that estimating the range in order to use the correct site leaf will take some practice. The standing site is marked "50" and that's the one used shooting at the 50 yard target that follows. The first folding leaf is marked "100", the next "200", the next "300", the 4th leaf is marked "400", and then the "ladder-site" goes up another several hundred yards with the highest mark being "11".

Westley Richards must have had some very good shooters back in 1882, to take advantage of these sites. Or maybe they just wanted to intimidate the competition.

I recently contacted Westley Richards asking about this rifle, and they are sending a Factory Letter - hopefully I'll discover more History about it.

Your comments are welsome.

Very nice little rifle. Are cases available or did you have to modify something else?

I don't admire the extra-large ivory inlays, but they sure make the rifle individual!

That cartridge ought to do a whitetail just fine!

Hello Mike A.

Thanks for the reply.

Bertram Brass cases are available from Buffalo Arms for $110 per 20 pcs.

Yes, the Ivory Inlays do look a little "over-the-top". I'm pretty sure they were a later addition by a former owner, and not Westley Richards.

Although the Ivory looks bright white in the pictures, its the result of the camera flash. They are actually quite old having been done a long time ago, as evidenced by their yellowing, aged patina.

I hope to locate a whitetail deer that will volunteer to test my rifle's effectiveness.

" It is interesting to note that the Field's action was patented in 1877, a full year before John Browning designed his Single Shot Hi-Wall action. I wonder if John Browning may have been influenced by the Field's action and only modified that design, rather than inventing his own action."

Actually John M. Browning was issued U.S. Patent No.220,271 for "An Improvement in Breech-Loading Fire-Arms" on October 7, 1879. The accompanying drawing clearly shows that the firearm in question was what would become the Winchester High Wall.

Browning manufactured his rifles himself and sold them in his shop in Ogden, Utah, where they were discovered by a Winchester representative. In 1883 Winchester bought the patent from Browning and manufactured the rifle, beginning in 1885. Browning had manufactured and sold almost 600 of the rifles before selling the patent.

This was the first of many patents obtained by John M. Browning and sold to Winchester. The original patent models are on display in the Browning Museum in Ogden.

It wouldn't surprise me if those ivory inlays were placed to hide a wood or brass pin used to repair a split.

Thanks for showing the nice rifle buckstix. I don't think you need the extra 100fps. That 1115fps 350gr group looks good as is, but I'd guess backing down to 1300fps for your factory load match might cover everything with that fifty yard leaf inside a hundred yards. Best of luck out in the woods this fall, and give it plenty of time to lay. I guess I'm just thinking, it's great to hear a nice classic is being used and is headed back out into the field.

Hello xausa,

Thank you for the reply.

Field's U.S. Patent was granted in February 1878. Although Browning's patent for the hi-wall looks very simlar, Field's actions had a self-cocking hammer feature.

Modern day hi-walls are now available with this self-cocking hammer feature, although Target and Schuetzen shooters have added this modification to their rifles in the past.

Hello Greg G.

Thanks for the reply. You may be correct. Although I can see no evidence of any cracks or splits, in bright sunlight I can see 3 small wooden cross-pins that were added behind the grip area.

I would agree that perhaps the Ivory Inlays are covering some type of similar repair.

Hello craigd.

Thanks for the reply.

Today I tested a slightly reduced load of 42.5g H4895 with 380g paper-patch bullets. Average velocity was 1275 fps with very easy case extraction. Cases fired with this load were also easily re-inserted into the chamber.

At this velocity the bullet has 1425 ft/lbs of energy at the muzzle, and retains 1200 ft/pounds out at 100 yds. This should be plenty for the "Wiley Wisconsin Whitetail".

Three years ago I bagged a nice "Button Buck" with my Alex Henry 450-3-1/4 BPE.

I love taking these old wariors for a walk.

All of my original High Walls, except the Schuetzen have the self cocking feature.

Hello xausa,

Thanks for the reply,

That's interesting. My 32-40 Hi-wall Schuetzen rifle does have the self-cocking feature. It was built-up by O.A. Niedner.

The highwall can be made to do either by simply changing the fly.

My 1896 highwall .38-40 also is a self-cocking action; you have to let the hammer down onto the half-cock once it's loaded if you need a "safety."

My impression was that the automatic half-cock actions were a later development and that the original Browning rifles and most of the 19th century Win 1885s cocked automatically. That was a great advantage for anybody using the rifle for anything but target shooting--am I wrong about that?

Sorry to drift off topic, but the Bullard single shot from around the same era has a silky smooth self cocking action. Pretty good trigger pull too.

Hello All,

Well, after several trips to the range, here's what I came up with. Although I was able to get higher velocities with paper-patch lead bullets, I settled on the 350g Speer FP for their superior accuracy.

Not bad for a 133 year old rifle - and more than adequate for Wisconsin Whitetail deer this fall.

Hello Buckstix,
That's a very nice find indeed. I would certainly recommend you stick to PP lead bullets and never fire jacketed bullets in it at all. Rifle barrels of this vintage were made of soft steel that wears out fast with jacketed bullets. At the velocities your firing a jacketed bullet is hardly likely to expand, whereas a PP lead bullet certainly will at those velocities. A pity about those ivory inserts. Roy Weatherby has a lot to answer for when it comes to inlays on a rifle stock. I know he wasn't the first to do it by any means, but 'space age' additions do not look right on a late 19th Century rifle.

Harry

Hello Harry Eales,

Thanks for your reply.

I don't doubt that these early rifles had barrels of softer steel than used today, but of the over 50 vintage rifles in my collection, I have shot jacketed bullets in all of them, and have yet to "shoot-out" the rifling in any one of them.

I had read many times about NOT shooting jacketed bullets in vintage guns, but never had a "first-hand" account from someone that had a problem.

So, I did an experiment once with an 1870's Springfield trapdoor. I did a cerosafe casting of the throat area and the muzzle, and then I shot it 300 times with various jacketed bullets. When I repeated the cerosafe casting, I found absolutely no indication of wear in the throat or at the muzzle.

Maybe the person who originally wrote about wear with jacketed bullets, was using old steel jacketed military bullets, and fired thousands of rounds.

Anyway, I don't seem to have a problem, but each to his own.

I too thought the ivory inserts looked pretty miserable at first, but I'm starting to get used to them.

I recently had occasion to remove the stock to take a good look around inside, and found no evidence of cracks or repair to justify using the ivory inserts as cover-ups. That means that someone actually put them there on purpose, thinking they were making the rifle look more beautiful.

So who am I to judge.

I think some of us have seen shot out barrels, so it's probably possible to do. I'd never say never, but I'd only shoot lead in an antique or older unreplaceable rifled barrel, mostly because I'd like plenty left for the next generations.

Mostly, I hope you don't mind if I add, verticle stringing could be all sorts of things on the target of your hunting load, but maybe recheck that one when temps cool off to make sure you don't open the groups up more than you thought.

Hello craigd,

Thanks for the reply.

Most of the "shot-out" barrels that I have seen, have been those that were not properly and thoroughly "cleaned" after black powder use, and left to corrode. And then sometime later, "scrubbed" to death after the damage was done.

I think the vertical stringing of my group is from my failure to use a "V" notch rear sight effectively. I always have difficulty with any rear "open" sight. I do much better with an apeature rear sight, or best of course with a scope. Neither of which I will be adding to this rifle.

Its also worth mentioning that the rings on the target shown are 3/4" spacing. The target was a Schuetzen target. I'm very happy with 1" be it vertical or not.

Hello Buckstix,

When I refer to old rifles I mean those made and chambered for Black Powder rounds. Steel jacketed bullets were introduced until after Smokeless powder came into being so it's unlikely I submit that the old rifles were worn out by shooting steel jacketed bullets as they weren't many made in BP calibres. Any old BP rifle will suffer from throat and barrel erosion if the user fires smokeless powder loads in them and I believe that is the cause of most barrel damage. Barrels made of Chrome/Moly steel weren't around in BP days.

Harry.

Hello Harry Eales,

Be that your opinion, is OK. But in most cases people just believe what they have read, and their opinions are not based on personal shooting experience or controlled testing. There is much "folk-lore" in the shooting game, and just because something is repeated over-and-over-and-over, doesn't make it so.

I'm an R&D Engineer and my experiences are based on testing and actual "shooting" of over a hundred antique arms, and I will continue to shoot smokeless powder and jacketed bullets, with little concern.

My "experience" is based on 50 years of actual shooting, and thus my "opinions" are backed up by this.

I have documented shooting over 9000 rounds loaded with smokeless powder through my Antique Stevens Schuetzen rifle, and these is no appreciable wear to either the throat or the rifling.

Similarly I have shot hundreds of "full house loads" with jacketed bullets and smokeless powder through my 1883 45-70 cal. Bullard lever action for years, and it still shoots minute of angle with its crisp rifling.

I could go on and on, but I won't bore the readers with a list of all the different antique guns that I shoot. The list list is extensive, and the shooting is documented in my many journals.

In reality, I have yet to have someone tell me "first hand" that they have conducted any barrel wear tests, and found that after "X" number of smokless powder shots, or after firing "X" number jacketed bullets, that the rifling was measured to show that it has worn "X" thousands of an inch. It just ain't so.

And in reference to steel jackets bullets being fired, I know they weren't around in the black powder era, but they were plentiful in the 1920's through the 1970's, and perhaps it was "then" - during that time, that they were used which destroyed the riflng. Even today, many, many, military bullets are found to look like ordinary jacketed bullets, until testing with a magnet reveals them to have copper plated steel jsckets.

I think your position is just fine with me, but there are good examples to look at.

A jacketed bullet bench rest shooter will set the barrel back or rebarrel when the shot count is in the low thousands. Top cast bullet bench rest shooters may go well north of a hundred thousand shots and be confident in the performance. Those jacketed bench rest barrels generally look really good, and are properly cared for, but have measurable wear and will fall off in the performance that it originally had.

Hello craigd,

Thanks for the reply.

That may be true for professional benchrest shooters that fire thousands of rounds at "very high velocity" and win or loose matches based on .001 inch differences in increased group size, but even run of the mill competition Match rifles with barrels from Shillen, Krueger, Obermeyer, etc. will go about 6,000 to 8,000 rounds before showing any signs of accuracy change.

The last time I had an issue with my Obermeyer Match rifle's accuracy dropping off after 4,000 rounds, Boots told me to, concentrate on scrubbing it repeatedly with JB until the paches came out clean. When I asked about JB being an abrasive, he commented that; "..water is an abrasive if given enough time - just look at the Grnad Canyon." After scrubbing the barrel every day for a month, the rifle started shooting 1/4" groups again.

But for the most part, here I'm discussing recreational shooting and hunting use of antique arms, which even over 30 years doesn't come close to affecting measurable barrel wear. At least not for me; I can't speak for others.

Just for comparison for those who are unfamiliar with these beautiful little rifles here are a couple of shots of one I formerly owned.

Hello Larry21556,

Thanks for the reply.

A very nice example, in very nice condition. What caliber was it?

I was never able to find out its original chambering. when I got it it had been converted from a rim fire to .22 Single Shot. A very slick little rifle.

Hello Larry21556,

Thanks for the reply.

Very interesting. So it was a factory rimfire originally?

That is my guess from the firing pin bushing that was installed in the block. I don't have a photo of it but it did not look original to the block.

With regards to shot out barrels, no one has mentioned the Hygroscopic salt crystals that were once used in primers.
I was in the British Army during the fifties and the 303 still needed the barrels washed out with water with the ammunition we were using.
I think a lot of people at that time thought that as they were using modern ammunition they didn't have to wash out the bore.

Hello Nero,

Thanks for the reply.

Yes, a very good point.

Hello All,

Here's an update.

I have shown below the letter that arrived from Westley Richards yesterday. As you can see the letter indicates that no history was found on my rifle. However, its still nice to have an original Westley Richards Factory Letter documenting that the rifle was made my them in 1882.