in december of 2022, i had an opportunity to handle and measure a george bate 10 gauge gun...30" pretty heavily choked damacus barrels...had been proofed under the 1875-87 b'ham proofs with standard 10 gauge and normal chamber lengths.
was built on the w&c scott triplex grip action, with the 2 screw "trapdoor" access to the mechanism....had been reproofed in b'ham under the 1925-54 rules, and chambers had been increased to 3 1/4", with 1.5oz nitro proofs. seller had previously owned the gun, and used it for sandhill cranes, with bismuth reloads in 3.5" cases. he had recently repurchased the gun, and was trying to sell it again. he was quite surprised when i told him the latest date of manufacture would have been circa 1886. gun had been properly redone, i guessed at the time of reproofing....gun was very nice, but, i had little use for a 9.5# 10 gauge.
thought i still had photos of the gun, but the gb item # failed to pull up the original ad copy.
best regards,
tom
