I recently purchased a Charles Hellis and Sons boxlock shotgun, 'The Reliable' for a rain gun. The gun was made in about 1920. It is very pretty in its' "plainess", but has nothing but border engraving. It's a 12 gauge, hand made, and I didn't pay very much for it. I'm lucky and have a good gunsmith here in Indianapolis, and he and I (mostly him) took the gun to pieces and made a new pin for the right hand ejector which had fractured, but still the ejector functioned. I was pleasantly surprised as to the fit and finish of all the working parts in this inexpensive Anson and Deeley boxlock. The parts were fitted to a high degree and polished well. All the springs are robust and of the leaf spring type, including the top lever spring. The triggers are perfectly crisp, superior imo and far better than one would expect on a fairly low grade gun with almost no engraving. The gun weighs 6 1/2 pounds and is balanced pretty well, but still not as pleasingly balanced as a similarly weighted sidelock. I compared this gun to a Westley Richards droplock in the shop and the balance seemed similar. With the exception of the ability to hand remove the locks on the WR, I could see absolutely no advantage to the far more expensive gun (the WR) as compared to this solid and extremely well built boxlock. I think the generic English, Anson and Deeley boxlock, most of which are Birmingham guns, are an excellent value for the money and frankly, I have no idea why they aren't more expensive.
