doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Any opinions on James Robertson guns?

Does anyone own or at least shot a James Robertson gun (built in Birmingham through Boss)? I saw a guy with one hunting a few months back and had never heard of it. Tracked down some information and they seem interesting. Obviously much more affordable than a Boss - but I can't find really anything that has been written about them. Did a search here and came up with nothing. Any thoughts?

Do you mean "JOHN" Robertson? The new BLE with side plates, made in Birmingham, finished by Boss? Like the kind that Cabelas brought into the country a couple of years ago? If so, I've seen and handled a couple of them at Cabelas in Sidney NE in 2008. They are very nicely finished (surprise surprise right?), I believe all of them that came into the U.S.A are single trigger guns. I heard somewhere that the barrels are supplied from a German manufacturer, not that it really makes a difference, just found it interesting when I heard it.
If your talking about guns that were actually built by John Roberston...most all of those are in the stratoshphere in regards to quality. There's a reason why his services were so highly sought after by most all "best" gun makers during the mid to late 1800's.

Dustin

Yes - that's what I meant sorry. John Robertson guns built in Birmingham.

There were a few John Robertson marked guns made after WW1. These were built by John Harper, Webley and Scott, Ilsley and others, but mostly Harper. These boxlocks were finished by Boss.

A friend bought a Robertson 16. If I recall from the proofmarks, it was from the between the wars period. One sweet, very high quality Brit BLE.

These are what I'm talking about:

http://www.bossguns.co.uk/robertson.asp

I believe these have only been built for about 5 years now and only come in 12 or 20 gauge (both SxS and O/U) models. Somewhere between $15-$20K for what is advertised is an elite shotgun but not a "London best."

Call Tom Bryant at the Sidney Cabelas. They have one for sale there now for around 13K. Tom was intrumental in bringing these guns into the U.S. He could fill you in on all the juicy details and might even be able to put you in the drivers seat of one.

Dustin

The two I find on the Cabela's website are at their Hammond IN and Mitchell SD stores. $13.5K on the Hammond gun, which is new but with a "handling mark" from when it was on display. The Mitchell gun is $1500 less but used.

They are decidedly heavy for 20ga game guns. If I recall correctly, when I spoke with Tom Bryant about these, potential uses included things like high volume doves in South America.

There's a photo of the barrel flats of one of the guns. Interestingly, it still carries the "1200 bars" proofmark. Per Dig Hadoke's book (p. 139), "bars" went away under the most recent proofmark change, which took place in 2005. Yet Cabela's states that the gun was manufactured in 2007. Wonder if we're now in the same situation as the late 80's, when there was a transition period from the old "tons" proofmarks to bars, when either could be used.

I think you will find that the Robertson marked boxlocks are typical Birmingham made guns. The ones I've seen are higher grade (cost more originally) and similar to the higher grade William Evans and Army & Navy guns. I doubt that Boss would have invested their valuable time in finishing such guns when the Birmingham trade could have done it just as well and much cheaper. Boss would have, however, taken responsibility for quality control and would have inspected each gun to assure it was up to the standards of the price they charged for it.

Rocketman, for what it's worth, Donald Dallas describes the boxlock Robertson guns from 1920-60 on page 275 of his Boss and Co. Second edition. He says "They were not made by Boss being built in Birmingham and engraved and finished by Boss".