doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Lord Ripon's Purdey shotgun to go under the hammer

Sounds to me like that Purdey might be wore out....

That was the funny

Judging from the way he fussed over his game book, I'm willing to bet his guns were meticulously maintained by Pudeys

CJ

Further to my earlier post, here is some additional information taken from the Sotheby catalogue of 1985.
The gun was rebarreled by Atkin in 1928[30 inch chopper lump steel barrels with 2 1/2 chambers]. The work was carried out for Mr C.Julian, keeper to C,Viner. Previously, Mr Julian was head keeper to Lord Rippon.
Included in the lot with the gun was the keepers game book for Studley Royal,for the years 1893-1929.This book records that Mr Julian on occasion participated as a gun in the shooting at Studley Royal.In addition the lot included a chart showing game killed by Lord Rippon between 1867-1900 plus several news-paper cuttings showing Lord Rippon shooting with his hammer ejectors.There can be little doubt that the later items increased the price realised.
Lord Rippon usually shot with a trio of guns. Pictures of one of these trio,s is featured on the dust wrapper of Cyril Adams & Robert Bradens excellent book, "Lock Stock and Barrel"

I have read that Lord Rippon was one of the best shots of his day or any day. One story reported that while shooting his trio of guns he had shot and killed six different birds in such rapid succession that all six dead birds where in the air, falling to the ground, at the same time. We should not judge his total bird kill against today's restricted limits and today's much different moral judgments about hunting and limits. Men and times change and the norm was for the rich to shoot high numbers of game as both entertainment and a way to show their skills. In many ways I wish that I had been one of them. But then I would be long dead had I been and HomelessJoe might own my guns today and cut them down for his cowboy action shooting.

The rich in the UK still shoot lots of birds. They just don't write about it in the newpaper anymore unless it's some liberal trying to paint them red.

DLH

KJ...We've saw several of my guns. I've been waiting over 3 years to see a photo of one of guns.

For a guy that talks of guns but has never posted a picture of one of his supposed treasures....that's pretty lame calling a me cowboy action shooter.

The story about 7 birds dead in the air has been reported numerous times. Apparently, Lord Ripon was a good shot, but also a good self-promoter. An article in one of the British magazines (either "The Field" or "Shooting Gazette") disproved the Lord's claim by calculating the most optomistic time it would take for a high pheasant to fall to ground (even into a valley) and showing that no one would be able to shoot the next six birds and switch guns three times in that time.

I heard he shot two birds that were mating, and the mama bird laid the egg in flight, which then hatched and he shot the chick as well, but only after he had given it time to learn to fly on its own.

A little overkill if you ask me. I think this dude was just a tad out side of the true sportsman's boundry.

Tim

If Lord Ripon had made it Argentina dove shooting I bet his kill numbers would've topped a million.