doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Upon futher review, on gun screws.

You "know" it is a nice gun when the screws out of sight on the fore arm, are engraved and timed. I guessed they did it just because they could. Or when I looked at the entire gun closer I figured out they got the screws from the trigger guard mixed up with the ones under the fore end. The ones on the trigger guard are as plain as white bread. I just find it funny anyone who took it apart could not get the fancy screws on the outside and keep the plain ones out of sight. At least they did not bugger up the screws and the next owner can reverse them in a couple minutes.

That's funny, Jon.

Looks like, from my perspective, that they are out of place, too. The heads of both shown in the pic appear to be proud of the forend iron. I'll bet they pull up flush when put back in the t.guard.

Since they are timed, they may not be snugged down, either.

SRH

The larger screw is too wide for the tapered area on the iron. The screw holes on the guard are two different sizes which I though was odd but after looking at several more guns from the same maker was their norm. Looking at both the fore end and trigger guard there is not much question what happened. The fact that he did not bugger ant screw suggest he had decent tools and some skill but the attention to detail was lacking.

At least they didn't peen them flat...
JR

ah, great post. Thanks!

I am not getting the photo of the t'guard but I am fairly certain that the two 'pins' shown in the forend pic are not from a t'guard. They are both filed flat and not curved as is invariably the case with normal t'guard screws. If they were not flat they would have an oval outline. It is also unlikely that they would be of such different size.
If the T'guard pins are properly filed in but plain, they are most likely new pins that were never engraved for reason of economics, time or access to an engraver.
Far better this that the ghastly scratching done by some inept twit with a workshop scribe. At least they can be sent off for a professional to finish off.
Looking at the forend pic, the gun appears to be an ejector with Anson forend catch so I would guess that the left 'screw' is a pin that holds the rear of the ejector box in position under the forend iron and the right 'screw' is a thru pin to a diamond within the chequered underside. They may well be the wrong size for their recesses and if so were probably cannibalized from a scrap forend.
And as a point of interest, the majority of vintage and antique Purdeys had un-engraved internal pins/screws (including forend and t'plate screws) as standard, 'because they could'!!!

Toby, you have rightly pointed out the obvious, which I overlooked when thinking about this. Absolutely right that the guard screws (pins) would have the heads rounded to the profile of the guard. These obviously are not.

Good catch.

SRH