doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Midland hammer gun info and opinions?

I've seen some cool looking hammer guns by Midland. Any info or feedback on this gun company?

Most I've handled were of lower quality. Wasn't Midland like an English hardware store ?

Midland shires is a farming store.

The Midland Gun Company had a factory in Birmingham and mostly provided trade guns to provincial stores. Most of their output was inexpensive. Lots of hammer guns and boxlock non-ejectors.

They did make guns under their own name and their better grade was called the 'Demon' and had a distinctive buttplate resplendent with well-hung demonic figure. Later models had the little chap emasculated to save the blushes of the prudish.

As ever, judge the individual gun and forget what the name says.

I kinda see them as the Workingman's Gunmaker
I think they made alot of lower grade Guns,but not any rubbish either.
They had a fair old selection too I believe, from plain BLs on up to pretty nice SLs...at least that's what I've heard.
Never seen one myself.
There was an article in DGJ a good few years ago on them.
There was good stuff, a nice pic of their Best SLE, looked awesome!..So believe they had the skill, but perhaps not the rich customers?
Franc
So look for a good one, I guess

Hammer guns could run from the Keeper's Model which was low priced on upwards. They were always in the more functional level with their hammer guns but could make a best sidelock ejector that could rival anything. I have a few of their hammer guns in my collection and a best boxlock that is the equal of anything. Basically Midland Gun Co. could turn out just about anything the customer wanted. Here's one of their sidelock non ejector 20 bores that I picked up recently:

"Trade" is the key word. Midland was a active maker in the trade. If they lacked the skill in-house for any work, most assuredly they knew who in the trade could do it and what would be a fair charge. So, they turned out anything and everything they could sell. Judge each gun for its Original Quality independent of the name on it.

I don't think that the skill was lacking from what I have seen over the years. I think that very few quality hammer guns were made after about 1885 and with Midland Gun Co. coming in a bit late there was no market for high quality hammer guns but still a strong market for workaday HG's for the Farmer, Gamekeeper and Sportsman of more limited means. They could turn out some first class stuff when they wanted. Lagopus.....

I have tried to find some details about this maker for this thread but sadly at the moment I have drawn a blank. That is apert from a vague recollection that the name is still in use by my friend Terry Hale, also I seem to remember they were still active in the 1980's at The Grange shooting ground out Redditch way. I also believe they were marketing Miroku in the UK in the 60's and maybe got swallowed up by Parker Hale. All this is stored in the cobwebs of time and may be hallucinationary due to the onset of age, nitro cellulose, blackpowder, and whisky.