doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com The Field Trials of 1879?

I came across an interview with the gunmaker Max Ern where he stated that he exclusively used the Bissell/Rigby rising fastener patent after seeing a test in an 1879 issue of The Field. Evidently, with every single gun they tested save for the Rigby, the standing breeches were discovered to deflect backwards away from the barrels under firing. I'm not entirely sure how they measured this and would like to read more about their strength testing. There's no mention of that particular test in Walsh's book from 1882, however he does note that in his opinion a top rib fastener was necessary on guns with bar-action locks (due to the metal missing from the bar needed to accommodate the mainsprings).

Does anyone have a copy of this test or the issue in question? I cannot find it for the life of me anywhere on the internet.

Kip, I subscribe the the UK newspaper database which is sometimes quirky to use:
https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/

It looks like the trial you are referring to took place 28 April and was published in the 3 May 1879 edition. It appears the trial was to measure the velocity with which shot of various sizes powered by various charges of power in various gauges arrived at a target. I cannot find the test itself but there are numerous letters leading up to it and commenting on it. For instance, this is one letter from May 10, 1879 in the Field:



There is a reference to a Jan 25 1879 editorial which discussed a new "force meter" which was going to be used.

I'll continue to play around with the database using various search words. Maybe something will turn up.

This, and page 120, are the only references to a 1879 Trial in Frederick Toms, Sporting Guns and Gunpowder, 1897
https://books.google.com/books?id=inQCAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA117

Those shot penetration and recoil tests were the only things I could find, too.

I'm starting to wonder if either the interviewer or Mr. Ern made a slight error and got the year wrong, as I cannot find the action strength tests they speak of.

As of 1882, the date he first published The Modern Sportsman's Gun & Rifle, Walsh said that action strength across the various makers was a "very delicate question, involving important commercial interests, ought not to be considered settled by a mere opinion, unsupported by a long series of exhaustive experiments, which are quite beyond the powers of any individual."

Evidently he wanted to avoid stepping on any toes, however he mentions in another chapter that "this weakness of the bar-lock action we proved by experiment, as published by the Field of May 25, 1878."

I can pull up this lone summary from May 3, 1979 "The Field" on the trial, but cannot find the actual results. I'm sure the site is just quirky but I'm not sure the information you're looking for is there.

There were trials sponsored by "The Field" in May 1878 on strengths of powders. Perhaps that was where the comments on bar-lock actions came from. I'll look it up this afternoon after shooting.

Test of powders fired from choke bored guns, "The Field," May 11, 1878:

W.W. Greener The Gun and Its Development
Public Gun Trials listed and summarized
https://archive.org/details/TheGun/page/n339/mode/2up
London Gun Trial of 1879
https://archive.org/details/TheGun/page/n351/mode/2up

Drew and Argo, good information and thanks for finding those. I must conclude that Mr. Ern must have had a slightly lapse in memory and quoted the wrong test, as there's nothing here but tests of penetration, recoil, and choke boring (which are quite interesting but unfortunately say nothing of action strength).

Summary in Greener's Modern Shotguns, 1888