doublegunshop.com - home Forums Thread Like Summary - Interesting English boxlock ejector at Hallowell

From the description:

"A very high quality gun, inexplicably unsigned. "

www.hallowellco.com/english____boxlock_ejector____12.html

I wonder if it even has a serial number.

Do we see sterile British shotguns at all? Any ideas how that might have come about? And would anyone care to take a stab at guessing its maker, based on the design, the pin locations....?

May I add the Henry Morris engraving shop in Birmingham to your list .

You are correct about apprentice ships , having been through this system myself . Although in my own time I was fortunate enough to avoid being to specialised and over my 48 working years was able to become experienced in actions , stocking and barrel work .

The gun we are talking about looks to be English work overall and has the look of a " gunsmiths gun" .By which I mean a gun that has been built or rebuilt with all the bells and whistles that you think a good gun should have ( The famous Scales gun being a good example )

The fact it is not signed is a mystery but IMO could have been made as show piece by a Gun Finisher , these were people who would work up barrelled actions for shops , smaller makers and do out work for larger companies , this could be a example of their work.
We may never know .

Could be wrong but my guess its a worked up BSA . Chopper lump barrels are a good clue .
I have seen a few BSA 's finished with others names on , but not as fancy as this one .

Had another look at the photo's .
The Chopper lump barrels are dovetailed together which is exactly the same as BSA did and that and the " bolsters " around the bottom of the fences say the same . Not a betting man but I'll put a Dollar ( yes a whole one) against it being anything else .

He sure is proud of it….

Best,
Ted

Well done, Gunman, you beat me to it. I wanted to look at the markings on the bottom of my BSA BLE for comparison before posting.

I noticed that the chopper lump barrels did not have a dividing line down the middle, and if they are dovetailed (the photo is not very clear)they are certainly BSA Jessops Fluid Steel chopper lump barrels.

Those BSA guns, although machine made, were built with first class materials and one taken in the white to a good action filer and then engraved would produce a lovely gun.

Just an fyi Fudd, but Morris Hallowell is a weird duck. He comes up with some interesting stuff, but talking to him is like talking to a Martian. Y'all don't tell him I said that.
JR

Reminds me of a Dan Fraser gun.

I think it's pretty but too heavy for me.

I think Gunman could be on the right track. Nothing to stop BSA selling a gun 'in the white' to be finished elsewhere and not that unusual to see a 'no name' gun waiting to sell into the Trade to be finished off and a name applied later. The 1 1/4 ounce mark indicates 2 3/4" chambers. That is the problem when trying to research English guns in that the name on the gun may be nothing to do with who actually made it. I have a couple with names on but no information in any listings on that name. Lagopus.....

The expert eye !!! Made a good job of it ,whoever did it.

I have a 6 10oz 2 3/4 1 1/4 oz gun George Graham I have had it for 20 years ,Plain gun never fails I do not think it's heavy at all

Your purposes clearly do not involve being carried on a palanquin everywhere you go.

Not sure of anything. However, the Birmingham proofmarks suggest it's probably not a Baikal.

It is certainly a BSA, they were all made with an action body shape similar to the Facile Princeps but were of course A&D actions.



Note the action shape and screw and pins placement on the BSA BLE “specially made for Fletchers of Gloucester”.



And the shape of the bottom plate (loads of room for engraving).



Dovetailed chopper lumps.

Sooo … inside my £150 (if I am lucky) BSA lurks a $6,995 best boxlock just waiting to be liberated by a good action filer, engraver and stocker (the existing walnut, straight grained with a “fiddle back” ain’t bad).

I believe BSA directors and senior employees may have used De Luxe models.

I wonder if one of them made this anonymous example as a “show and tell” gun - “Who do you think made this?”

Nobody is likely to pay 7,000 for a no name box lock. Asking and getting are two different things. For seven grand you can find a not too worn out named London side lock. I suspect if you looked hard you could find a few $7,000 box locks but only a few. The tip of an iceberg.

I wonder who made it, and then why. Was it by request of a buyer? Was it done by someone in the trade as a proof of what could be done if money was no object? You can’t build a reputation for fine work without a signature. Perhaps it was done in the trade for personal use.

One other thought. What would it be worth with a name? I don’t know if I’d pay $7,000 with a name. It is what it is. A highly finished box lock, in a world which sells equal finished side plates for more than box locks.

You could, of course, do the same with a Baikal although your barrel man might wear out a few files striking down the barrels to achieve acceptable handling qualities

It would be pretty expensive (unless the customer’s name was Vladimir Putin when it would probably be FOC).

Merci. Timing is everything. I was just contemplating mailing him to tell him that the hive mind here had pretty well established that the thing started out as a bog-standard, commercial-for-rebadging, in-the-white BSA, and linking to this thread. I'll now put the brakes on that, lest he excoriate and ablate us for obscuring his view of Venus.

I irregularly look at his offerings just to see what he's got, sort of the way I used to read the Eaton's Christmas catalogue when it arrived every November when I was less than four feet tall. I've never met the man nor spoken to him, but based on his ad copy, he seems to be a member of the "True Enthusiast" subcategory of humanity. I know a few of those, might in fact be one, and I tend to look upon them kindly. I enjoy looking at what he's got up for sale, and reading his descriptions.

I still really like that shotgun. Hrm. Perhaps I should make him an offer in original series Star Trek credits. "Please ship via transporter."