doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Stanford & Laxton--Pics of Proofs added

Geez talk about a seniors moment. I sent the photo off to the proof house and hope to hear from them soon. In the meantime I'm sorta stumped

I await the reply in eager anticipation!

The gun has the general appearance of one made in Birmingham by The Midland Gun Company who turned out thousands of guns for the trade. It was made and proofed for 12 bore black powder cartridges and would almost certainly have been made for 2 1/2" length cases. the 14 designation indicated the bore diameter at 9 inches from the breech face was 14 bore when proofed; I have seen 12 bores marked as tight as 15. It could possibly have been lengthened but some live pigeon trap guns were made with 2 3/4" chambers and although this does not have th appearance of a trap gun it may have been made with the longer chambers for some reason. At that time the chamber length was not indicated on the proof marks as such but Midland Gun often marked it themselves on the forend loop on the barrels. The letter 'R' on the barrels may have been a barrel bores mark and that of the Rees brothers who were working for Midland Gun at around the time your gun was proofed.

I have nothing on Stanford & Laxton and suspect that it was one of many rertail outlets that had guns made in the trade and named for them. This was very common practice in the U.K. and does cause a few research headaches. I did research one recently with a name I could not trace and eventually got it down to a Victorian botanical expedition outfitters in London. Lagopus.....

Lagapus can you shed some light on why a gun would have 12g chambers and 14 bores? Is there any advantage to be gained?

A good question. I can think that some of the early ones would have been this way as 14 bore was very popular for muzzle loading guns and it would mean that 14 bore tubes could be used but would neccessitate chamering to 12 bore. I suppose some would think that the constriction gave better wad obturation; then again maybe it was a passing fad. Certainly in the late 1800's Joseph Lang marketed a shotgun called the Vena Contracta which was a 12 bore tapering down to just 20 bore. It was never popular. I seem to come across quite a few hammer guns of the same era as the Stanford & Laxton gun with tight barrels of around 14 bore. Fads come and go and the current one is to overbore the barrel but then again we now have better obturating wads. Maybe someone else has a theory? Lagopus.....

Great information. So is the general age thought to be around 1890?

I should say about there or give or take a year or two at the most. Lagopus.....

Thank you!

hi guys, ive become the owner of this shotgun, i had it out today shooting black powder loads through it, gun shoots wonderfully, loads i tried we as follows

65gr fff goex black,card over powder, then fiber 3/8" 3/4oz of #6 lead, load was mild recoil about of a 28 gauge modern load

80gr of FF 777, card over powder, 3/8" fiber wad, 1oz lead#4
recoil of a modern 16gauge, patterning was nice, even though one bore cylinder and other is about a modified

the largest load i fired was 95gr of FF black goex, card over powder, then a 1/2" fiber, 1 1/8oz of #6 shot
recoil was stout but ceartainly not out of sorts, patterns seemed unchanged, very gd upland gun, will be a pleasure out in the field

also to state the name on the rib, its spelled

Stanfort&Laxton London