doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Help with a Greener...

Hi all,

my friend called the other day and told that he had purchased a WW Greener from a gun show. He cannot speak nor read English, and he asked me for help with this.

So far I haven't seen any photos on that gun, and I'm not able to tell anything about the model. After I browsed through the earlier discussions on Greeners, I got the impression that they used one continuous series of serial numbers in all their models. Is this correct?

This particular gun is #29049, and according to the previous posts, it seems to have been made in the early 1880s. Can any of you specify that further? It is a boxlock with side safety.

The address on the rib is 68 Haymarket, and there is also that text "Winner of London Gun Trials..."

Rergards,
Saku

In 1886 Greener stopped the continuous serial numbers at 29000. They started the numbering again that same year at 35000. Looks like they reserved that block of numbers for some special reason. Not sure why. Additional information would help.

Jim

Wow,

this is starting to be interesting. I requested photos on the gun from my friend only a couple of days ago, but so far I have only the information that I provided above. So, I don't have any additional information yet. Only thing that he said was that the gun is somewhat worn out.

I'll post the photos/additional info as soon as I'm able.

In the meantime, if someone knows something, please let us know!!!

regards,
Saku

According to "London Gunmakers" the range 29,001 to 34,999 was reserved for brass case guns.

How do I get in touch with Graham Greener to get information on mine? Does anyone know how much he charges?

Hal,

check out the Greener website

I guess the price is £25.

Regards,
Saku

I finally got the photos from the owner. Files were small, and the pics are not too sharp, but I guess they should help in any case.





As I may have said, I'm not familiar with Greener models. I googled images of various models, and this seems to be an F model. I found a photo of F16 (?), which had similar thin action swells as this one. That F16 was the closest that I could find.

Models like F20 or FH35 were otherwise fairly similar at first glance, but at least the swells seemed to be bolder.

Photo on proof marks is poor also, but can any of you, who have seen a lot of these, figure out the marks?

I phoned the owner the other day, and he said that the chamber throats look different than in an average 12ga shotgun, so this might well be for brass cases, as was suggested above.

Regards,
Saku

Your gun is built on an action patented by Greener called a "Facil Princips" and was made about 1885, Yes it has been used a lot, but there maybe a lot of use left in it.Have someone qualified check it out.I have a F 30 and yours is a F 16 meaning it cost 16 Guineas.
Attaching a couple of pictures of one of mine for a reference

Thanks Stallones! Great info.

I assume that it is the F 30 in your pics. As I'm eager to learn more about these things all the time, I would kindly ask you to specify, how can you tell that there's F 16 in my post.

Disregarding the worn out condition of this one that I have, those two look just the same to me.

Regarding the price, can someone help me with the value of money in those days? I've studied the history of hunting bounties here in Finland, and in doing that I have made conversions of ancient bounties to €€, but I don't have any idea about the current ££ or €€ or $$ value of 16 guineas (1885-1886). I'm sure that there is info on this in the web, but I try this 'quick and dirty' method before any serious googling

Regards,
Saku

I believe 16 Guineas was about 15 pounds Sterling and would have been about 75.00 US. Mine has a lot of fine Engraving which you cant see on the picture and that along with the Wood quality would have been the difference between a 16 and 25 or 30 Guinea gun. Mine was made in 1893.