(If Mike doesn't mind I'll post this here). Mike Harrell has received his beautiful Reilly U-L hammer gun .500 BPE double rifle from Gavin Gardner per this line on the double rifle, paradox forum below:
https://www.doublegunshop.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=650684#Post650684

It is really a quality gun. But there's a conundrum. The SN is 20674 which dates to very late 1876 or very early 1877. This is a very solid estimation. The address on the barrels is "502 New Oxford Street and rue Scribe, Paris also from the late 1870's. The address should have changed to "16 New Oxford" after November 1881. The gun looks absolutely 1870's and the proof marks appear to bear this out.

The barrels should be Damascus yet it appears these are Steel. They bear the same SN as the gun and again have the original address for Reilly. There are no Whitworth grainsheafs on the barrels only a barrel maker stamp "S. SM" which Mike believes is "S. Smith." Reilly did not advertise Whitworth steel barrels until January 1882 and the earliest Whitworth barreled shotgun is dated to December 1881.

[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]

The label in the case is the one used for 16 New Oxford Street between July 1887 and May 1897.

[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]

'The first thought was perhaps the gun had been brought back to Reilly for service in the early 1890's and the barrels changed from Damascus to steel but this is not so. There is another Reilly .500 BPE SxS rifle SN 19953 from 1876 very similar to Mike's rifle, which also appears to have steel barrels (which cannot be confirmed).

[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]

So the question is: Were non-Whitworth steel barrels being made in UK in the mid 1870's? By whom? Is there any record of an S. Smith as a barrel maker from this period? This could change the Reilly history a bit. . .and would mean Reilly was using steel for barrels a good 3 years before Purdey got around to it.

Last edited by Argo44; 09/01/24 12:32 PM.
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