doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com J. Blanch & Son Wilfowling gun

The waterfowl on the gun are similar to those used on W C Scott higher grades.

I believe that the 3� ton proof is about an equivalent to 10,600 PSI so would be lower than SAAMI allows for any US 12 gauge shell of 2 3/4" or longer. A 4 ton pressure would be approximately equivalent to 12,300 PSI which does put it in range of US 12 gauge shells in either 2 3/4" or 3".

Look at the VERY BOTTOM of this site

http://www.shotguns.se/html/uk.html

Does you gun have any proof marks like this??
Might help age the gun.

Mike

Stan,
Blacking the base plate, often along with the trigger plate, is the standard refurbishment for English boxlocks.
Whether the guns left the factory like that is a whole other question.
One of the true gunmakers would need to post on that.
I am just a 'restorer' but since the base plates are rarely case hardened in my experience, I suspect it was normal for new guns to have blacked base plates.
The action may be 'coin' finish now but I am almost certain it would have been colour hardened originally. In fact I think I can see a tiny remnant where the balls meet the bar.

Toby,
Thanks for the information. I have no doubt about the authenticity of the gun. It does have all the London proof marks not Spanish, and all the markings are proper for the gun. This gun is pictured on the j blanch website under the box lock data section. The dealer I purchased it from is a specialist in British doubles so I have confidence it's right.

Toby it does have the markings for Marshalls Vindem steel barrels on the bottom of the barrels. If that narrows anything down. Here is a photo of the top of the gun

It does have several of the proof marks on here...I looked at the in context section and the combination of proof marks it has dated it from 1904-1925

Bummer
BUT What a lovely shotgun !!

If Birmingham proofed,I was hoping it had a mark like this


The London proof mark dating did not start till 1972.

Mike

Kwmpa
The top photo clearly shows the 'Horseshoe' toplever of the P Webley patent 'Screw Grip' so the gun definitely originates from Webley & Scott (as they became in 1897).
The lack of PATENT engraved on the horseshoe also points towards the gun being produced after the end of the patent protection (1896) but that is not conclusive as I have seen ones from after with, and ones from before without!
I have consulted my dating matrix and I regret there is no helpful information about the 67** numbers but I can tell you that 6685 was made in 1910.
The Spanish guns seem to have happened in the 68** to 7*** region but later guns often carried the trade maker's number and are undateable.
This gun is definitely prior to any proof house dating stamps.

Very nice gun. I just completed my search for a British waterfowl gun as well. I picked up a solid gun from a more obscure maker, A.J. Rudd. I am very pleased with the one I found, but I wish I would have stumbled across the one you found.

Mine is also proofed for 1 1/2 oz loads, and marked 3 1/2 ton, which according to Dig's website uses a 10,427 psi service load. I have been scouring my bismuth reloading manuals and have found some loads that I can adapt to use in my gun. I have found that these loads are somewhat of no-mans land. There are reams of info on low pressure 2 3/4" loads these days, but not much for "lower" pressure 3" waterfowl loads. This would make for an excellent DGJ article, I wonder if Mr. Bell has any interest in these guns/loads.