doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com detachable locks

I wouldn't want a hand detachable device with an interrupted thread. I want to turn it many turns before one of my locks falls off. I would want a Purdey letter documenting this feature as original before I got excited over it. I'm sure new Purdeys come with regular screw attached locks, but with battery powered, rechargeable screwdrivers to remove them. Hollands probably come with the same old levers.

Not having the pocket money to play with Purdey guns I cannot say from experience but I thought the hand detachable thumb levered bolt only appeared on one side and held both lockplates. This one seems to have a thumb lever on both sides of the gun. Would this be normal arrangement?

This is the first Purdey I have seen with this feature. I'm sure it probably has some sort of camming lock. [not the easiest thing to cut into an action] If you look closely at the photos, you will see a tiny arrow showing the direction of rotation of the thumbpiece engraved on the lockplates. I would have to say that they look original. If you are willing to pay, almost anything can be done.

All the best, Mal

Of course a bolt from lock to lock would not work in the location as shown on the Purdey as it would interfere with the spindel or something else. Two separate hand detachable devices are needed.

Purdey's will quite happily put hand-detachable locks on a new SxS gun for the mere sum of 1800 GBP (Ouch!)

H&H put their single lock pin [screw] toward the rear of the lockplate and it runs from plate to plate. This makes the stock a bit easier to inlet as you can use the pin to draw the plates to their correct position; it also allows the detachable pin to have normal threads. Purdeys have a single pin near the top center of each lockplate that screw into the action, and the plate tails are sprung into position as the pins are tightened. A hand detachable Purdey type action must require ten times the labor of a Holland type.

Mal-Scots-Skirt Mac Gregor.....The many times you have ventured into the"Museum of Perpetual Mess" an have not seen all those "Purty Purdeys" with the Hand-Detachable Side-Locks stacked in the Racks!!!!Of course, these don't fall to the ground like the Hand Drop-able Westley Richards style, it takes a "Bit of Savy to turn the Purdey"Detachable-Lever" 1/4 turn "Counter-Clockwise" on the Left Lever, then 1/4 turn on the right lever, and then pull the "Lever out of its seating.I have recently Re-Stocked a pr of 20b JP&S that left South Audley(JP&S.HQ.London)with this 'Feature". For the stockmaker,(Note Lower Case for stockmaker, as I was recently told after a "Person of "Gun-Dealing Stature of the Highest Degree" told me my Opinion I wrote of my Importance that the stockmaker had in the building of a Purdey DB Gun or DB Rifle when I was toiling for my "Pennies pr Hr,back in the 1950s,was way over rated!Purdeys could'nt sell their Guns & Rifles if it was'nt for the "Skill and Fantstic Artistic Engraving Carved into the Steel of the Guns & Rifles By the Engravers!! Ha!.... Stockmakers think the H/D Levers are a 'Pain' when it comes to re'stocking. I converted the PR of 20b,s to regular 'Side-Nails' interchangable with the "Levers", Barry Lee Hands matched the engraving on the 'Heads' perfectly......I belive Dr Drake recently sold the pair for the Client that I Re-Stocked them for. Wonder if the HD levers were with the Guns?????cc/dt

Osprey Arms just had a Purdey with hand-detachable locks. I think the lever was towards the rear of the left lock, but I could be wrong.

OWD

Donald Dallas is Putting together Vol. 2 of"Purdeys" and is looking for Photos and Info. of Unusual and Interesting Purdey Gun & Rifles. This Gun No 22899 12bore. with the Hand-Detachable Lock-Pins might just be something he could use...as 1925 was a Very Good Year for world Famous'Men of Action" to visit their Gunmakers....He can be reached through http://www.gun-Vault.com. cc/dt

So, XC, is it a cam lock arrangement?