For those of you who remember this thread, we are looking at a gun that up until now, did not exist. For years, amongst Spanish gun enthusiasts, there were rumors that Ugartechea also built a few guns with Beesley actions. In his book, Spanish Best, Terry Wieland only mentions the AYA Senior as the only Spanish gun built on a Beesley action. Well, on another forum in Spain we have finally found an Ugartechea with what appears to be a Beesley action, only unlike the AyA Senior, it has Holland locks --posing the question, how does this action work? There was some speculation that either it was actually based upon a similar action as found in a Defourney or a similar self-opening action found in another gun suspected to be built by Jules Bury (a Christophe)... What made the gun more of an enigma is that it has both Spanish and Belgian proof marks.
Within the last few days a few more pictures and a little more information has surfaced regarding the Ugartechea in question on the Spanish gun forum, Caza y Armas. First, the gun in question has Victor Saraqueta barrels that do not appear to be original to the gun. The barrels are from a different time period than the action of the gun and were probably made because the original barrels had been damaged. We now know from the Spanish proof marks used on the action of the gun, that the action was made between 1921-1929 because it has the stamp mark of Alfonso XIII. However, supposedly Ugartechea did not start making guns until 1927, so that narrows the date of production from 1927-1929. What remains to be seen is the insides of the gun in order to better understand how a self-opener would work with Holland locks and who actually made this gun...
Here are the additional pictures that are very interesting, especially of the one of the action which shows what appears to be cocking levers in addition to the opening levers on the water table...
Comments welcomed!
