doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com I'm new to SXS shotguns, but love them

hey! it worked!

tanks ahgin hanks...

Doug, thought you might find the following interesting.

Handling properties of Tate #08 are in my handling data base.

12 bore top lever hammer gun, 30" bbls, 15" LOP, 7# 7 oz, 4 3/4" balance to front trigger, 1.95 unmounted swing effort, 8.21 mounted swing effort, and 11.02 compactness.

Gun #08 is a poster child for lighter weight live pigeon guns. Compare to the following Scott Pigeon Club TLHG: 12 bore, 30" bbls, 15" LOP, 7# 14 oz, 5" balance, 1.98 unmounted swing, 8.75 mounted, and 10.81 compactness.

DDA

Hi all,

I received a new macro lens for my camera today and I needed something to test it out with. I decided to take a few pictures of my Tate 20ga hammer gun.

I also had Dale Tate document the provenance of my 028 hammer gun. Here is the following text from his hand-written letter:

• Gun 20g 30" barrels game gun bar action
• Semi beaver tail forend
• None ejector ham/gun
• Prince of wales stock
• Barrels proofed and regulated by Atkin Grant and Lang London
• Engraving by Charles Lee from Purdey
• Action filed and regulated by Tate from Purdey
• Stock and forend by Bill Harvey Maryland
• Hammers on gun new castle style I.E. PaPE
• Greener cross bolt
• Purdey double bite
• Anson push rod forend
• London silvers recoil pad

Here are the up close macro shots of various engravings of the hammer gun.

Hanks,
I'd say that the camera and lens combination work well together. Thanks for sharing such nice sharp photos of your beautiful gun.
Karl

Great pics. I noted that in one pic of the left lock area you can easily see the relief in the inletting directly behind the tail of the lockplate. This is exactly as it should be on a sidelock to prevent splitting of the wood over time. I just had an L C Smith done, and it looks exactly like that.

SRH

Are you sure about that gap behind the locks as the �right way�, Stan? Looks like a place where water could get in to me.

No gaps for me. The better sidelocks have a draw that pulls the side plate into the action alleviating the hammer from pushing the lock back into the wood.

Sans draw wouldn�t you think having a gap would then allow the sideplate to gain momentum in its movement to fill said gap, thus creating higher chance of cracking?

I�ve got Woodward�s, Purdeys, Boss, H&H, Rigby, and many more sidelocks in the shop, none have gaps nor any cracking behind the plate. I matched the inletting quality of the Woodward�s on their new stocks for good measure.

I have a picture of the inletting on the Tate 12 bore, which in my opinion has a much better fit. Please see below.




Once I get the 12 bore back from Dale Tate this weekend, I can take better pictures of it and share. I believe it has a very tight fit between the side locks and stock. As you can see the inside of the stock has a lot of inletting for all the parts of the side locks.

I will retract that statement. But, I will say that, IMO, LC Smiths should have a bit of relief in the rear of the lock inlets, because of the lack of area where the head of the stock contacts the action. There is precious little area for recoil absorption on a Smith stock, and it needs some "help". I know some will say that they have a Smith that has no sign of a crack and that there is no gap, but they may own a gun with a less compressible stock head, or it hasn't been shot a lot, etc.

In a conversation once, Nick Makinson told me that, when shot enough with heavy enough loads, all makes of sidelocks will eventually begin to crack behind the lockplate. He may have been wrong........... I have two other sidelock guns of other makes, that are not cracked behind the lockplates, and do not have large gaps in the inletting at the tail of the lockplate, but they may not have been shot nearly as much as my LC Smith.

I really don't know what the big deal is about a little water getting in around the locks. If you care for your guns properly you are going to pull the locks after using the gun in the rain anyway. Regardless, a little paste wax rubbed on and buffed off will keep small amounts of water out.

SRH