doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Inside the new Purdey factory

An interesting article about the renovated James Purdey factory in London. Thought I'd share

http://www.thefield.co.uk/shooting/the-purdey-factory-in-the-21st-century-30439

Thanks.

The prices they command combined with their extensive waiting list, that's a reputation most business owners can only dream about having.

Thanks for the post.

All this inorder to produce an exact copy of a 1885 model. Innovation in the best gun trade stopped about then. You have to wonder what the founders, most of them inventive and creative minds, with many patents to their name, would say about this technological stagnation.

I don't know about stagnation as much as it being a mature industry (technology). Face it, there is just very little room for real improvements by the end of 1880-1900. You had reliable single and double triggers, reliable extractors and ejectors, reliable barrels in both Damascus and steel, reliable openers on the top side and underneath and reliable locking lug systems in several different locations. It's all been invented and perfected. Those which did not work well were bypassed and those which remained were perfected further by tinkering.

Innovation continued well into the next century. Boss o/u for a start; not that superimposed barrels were anything new, but the way they were put together to combine the same features KY Jon above indicates and in a very much more refined way than previously, surely was innovative. Look at the many patents issued by best gun makers like Woodward, Beesley, H&H, Lancaster as examples of their minds still coming up with ideas and refinements.

Purdey's carried on refining their guns too. They have always acknowledged Beesley's patent of 1881 as being the bedrock of their subsequent guns. So many satisfied customers probably indicated to them that the design was right so why change it too much.

The petrol engine is still essentially the same design as Herr Benz drew it in 1879. It too has had innovative refinements along the way. I'm not sure I'd call that technological stagnation.

Tim

I admire English best guns, have two of them myself, but also see their shortcomings. (weak stocks, inaccessible innards, specialist and costly repairs).

Bruce Owen, former production manager of Purdey, wrote some years ago in Shooting Sportsman explaining how CNC machines forced the use of better steels, brought more machining accuracy to the product and other fascinating info. Presumably the CNC Purdeys will be called "bester" guns since they go one step up from the mild steel receivers of the past.

With so much talent under one roof one reasonably expects them continue with the classic design for those that want it and also innovate in the same spirit of James the Younger, giving us the Purdey vision of contemporary design. And make it as affordable now as Purdeys were in 1920, when they cost a quarter of an officer's annual pay. Now they cost twice the annual pay of a senior army officer.

Owen's comments on the pricing policy of the company are a classic. He puts the question on whether the new CNC machines, (which according to him cut production costs), will mean lower retail prices, he writes: "that is a matter for the marketing department". The implications are obvious.

I am of the opinion that once you've perfected a design, there is no need to change it just for the sake of it. Purdey to me are still quite innovative, more so than any other "best" maker. Look at the Damasteel guns which they first introduced in O/U, and now are available in SxS too.



Not "twisted" in the same manner as traditional Damascus, rather forgings are made in a metallurgically complex process which creates the pattern, and the steel has better properties than regular steel. Quite innovative without a doubt.

Yes, you only have to look at the cost of the shooting kit and clothing at Purdey's shop to see which way prices go! Want a shooting jacket? Yours for �975, thank you J Purdey.

Want a really brilliant shooting jacket for a lot less? Buy a Schoffel Ptarmigan for �399 from many of the sporting online outlets!

Tim

The Schoffel is indeed a great jacket, but I suspect that is also a highly profitable item. I have (among several Schoffel items) a Schoffel Cottesmore - made in Latvia (and well made), - not an area with expensive labour or overheads.

The margin Purdey makes on clothing must be simply HUGE.