First off this is my first English gun and my only concern was/is that it is in proof. However curiosity got the best of me and I tried to decipher the proof marks and all it did was confuse me. BTW, the heavy, and to me original proof stamp is NP over 17 after that all bets are off. This is an early gun so the original barrels were most likely Damascus. It has the early ejector system but works very well.
Doug, it was re-proofed after the chambers were lengthened from 2 1/2 to 2 3/4 (70mm)
Thanks Mark, part of my confusion is the address change on the barrels. Was that a routine process?
And lightly honed from .729" to 18.6mm = .732", which alone did not take the gun out of proof.
Guns with a chamber length of 2 3/4” are CIP nitro proofed to 900 BAR for a “Maximal Average (Service) Pressure” of 780 BAR = 11,313 PSI
Does anyone know what the LP over 76 means? Not 3" chamber????
May have been re-barreled by the Maker. I have an Atkin made in 1926 that was re-barreled in the early 50's by the Maker. It has the address on the barrels for Atkin when they moved to new address in the 50's.
So what year was your Grant made? I have a bar action, sidelever Grant hammer gun made 1889. It was sleeved last year in the UK and re-proofed.
I believe the "LP 76" means London Proof 1976
Looking at the proof marks I see :-
A Proofed under 1954 Rules of Proof vis .729" 2&1/2" 3 tons.
This would align with LP76 indicating re barreled in 1976
B.Sometime after 1989(introduction of Metric marks) chamber was lengthened to 70mm (2&3/4") . At that time it would accept a plug Gage of 18,6mm but no larger, bore dia so marked.
C.There appears to be a second LP date stamp that I cannot see clearly. this probably reflects the re-proof of Item B.
D There is nothing in the marks to indicate a light honing.
The .729" stamp merely confirm that a plug Gage of .739" would not enter the bore to a depth of 9". A dia of .732"/18,6mm would have been marked as .729"
Hope this helps, any other interpretation welcome,pls confirm if ther is a second LP mark and what date it reflects
Thank you for that clarification Hugh.
The source of my confusion is the 2006 Rules of Proof
https://www.gunmakers.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Rules-of-Proof-2006.pdfRule 18 on p.9 references p. 42 which lists the bores in mm in .1 mm increments
.729" = 18.5
.732" = 18.6 which we may assume was the original bore under the 1954 Rules?
Hugh, the second proof mark is stamped with a heavy hand and is LP17 hence most of my confusion.
Doug
LP17 was the year it was reproofed most likely after the chambers were lengthened. So from the beginning, rebarreled in 76, chambers lengthened in 17 and reproofed again. YES OR NO?
oops, Hugh got it!!! My bad!
thank you all for the feed back. It sounds like the barrels are worth more than the gun!