Not having the gun in hand, but reading what you said about feeling the movement when you pulled the triggers, leads me to think that the removal or loosening of the cocking levers may allow the fore-end to be removed. It is not unusual for mechanical malfunction to cause difficult and sometimes impossible removal of a fore-end. You will seldom see a London made best quality gun with an Deeley & Edge fore-end latch. The Anson was the most preferred and most simple. European gunmakers seem to have liked the Deeley & Edge system.
While we are discussing fore-ends, the type of fore-end attachment can be a method of dating the age of a hammergun, as up until about 1874 fore-ends were attached with a cross pin through the barrel loop to hold the fore-end in place. That is one of the things I recently saw wrong on a fake Purdey island lock gun that was touted to be a late 1860's made Purdey---It had a Deeley & Edge fore-end latch. The entire gun was not a fake, but the barrels and fore-end were.
Stephen Howell
Last edited by bushveld; 06/29/26 02:22 PM.
