doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com William Powell Hammergun.

Steve,I notice your lifter research seemed to start the guns at approx. serial 3300. How does the pictured Perrins lifter of serial no. 2263 fit into the groupings you have observed ?

Daryl,
I suspect that the "2263" is Perrins serial number.

Steve, you are probably right. I just looked at a Perrins and Son , Worcester, website and viewed about a half dozen hammerguns. They were from all sorts of designs, but none were of the Powell lifter mode. I could find two serial no. s and they were 3166 and 3177.

Steve Helsley Pleas check your PM's

According to the a copy of Powell's ledger I finally ran across, I have serial number 5889(9 lbs) which looks like it went to Mess. Sch??, Hartley & Graham, "One our patent action with stub dams. barrels 30 inches 12 bore, our patented strikers + rebounding locks, old bolt, ..." There's No. 4865, 6041, 5887, 5889, 5890, 6053 & 6054 on this copy. Mine's in rough shape as some A$$ cut the tubes back to about 25 inches. I inquired to Peter about a new set of tubes and his quote was around 9k pounds.

Kind Regards,

Raimey
rse

The "Sportimg Gun" of Jan 2010, page 110 states rhat a Perrins owners club has been formed.
The address is webmaster@perrins-gunmakers-of-worcester.org.uk

Can you post the Powells Patent number for 5889? It should be in the high-1700s or low-1800s.

The "Sch??" should be Schuyler, Hartley & Graham of NY, NY --
C.1860 to 1876 they were a sporting and military goods dealer.

Action is Powells patent 1163 of 1864. The retractable firing pins are covered patent #1055 of 1869.British patents numbers are not seqential; hence we have Firing pins with a lower patent #than the action, even though the firing pins were patented 5 years after the action!
The late Larry Barnes provided me with a copy of a John E.Long,Detroit,trade add. Unfortunately, its miss-placed in my files.As I recall, he was a dealer in guns and sporting gun powder.
Single bite snap actions[ie:Powell, Horsley.Daw and many others]were in use from 1861-to circa 1870.By 1865 they were being rapidly superceeded by the Purdey mutiple bite snap action in combination with the Scott top lever.

Roy,
I think that "1163 of 1864" means the one-thousand, one-hundred and sixty third patent issued in 1864.

Just how long Powell continued to build their No.1 Patent action -- the lift-up lever, is unclear. One source suggests that the last one was sold in 1921. Between 1864 and 1895 they built slightly more than 3000 or about 100 per year.

The "Powells Patent" number that I am looking for represents the patent use (total number of that action made to that point). It should be stamped on the action flat under the barrels.

Steve 1163 is the patent number,the date of issue was 1864.Recomended reading is the British Shotgun, vol 1[1850-1870] by Crudginton and Baker.