doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Behind the scenes at the Purdey factory

Saw this earlier today. A nice bit of insight. I've been to their London store but have never their factory, though some of their online videos pretty much put you in the place. Any of you been there for your own tour?


Behind The Scenes At The Purdey Factory

I find it interesting they are using a different lockup rather than their standard Purdey nose, hidden third fastener.

What is that 3rd fastener? I don't think I've seen that before?

Looks like overkill -- but that looks like a huge rifle.

OWD

This is the "standard lockup" third fastner for Purdey double rifles and has been for a 100 years or so and not only them but the Holland is similar. The main thing to view is the increased depth of the action at the fences and more importantly the size of the bolster of the side of the action to attempt to prevent the action from moving away from the barrels during firing of the cartridge. Also on a double rifle the draw of the action lumps is in full tight contact with the corresponding circle of the action to hold the barrels tight against the face of the action. Holland and others now use a replaceable draw insert that helps reduce the time of fitting the draw to the circle and of course the replacement for eventual wear. If you want to know about all this then read Vic Venters book GUN CRAFT chapter II --Jointing and the Circle. Vic's book should be in every double gun enthusiast library.

The Westley Richards dolls head third fastner and the Scott screw grip third fastner are better methods for double rifle and have proven so during the more than 100 years they have been in use. But alas there are only about 2-3 double rifle action makers in the world who can action a WR double rifle, Mark Mitchell being one of them.

http://www.hallowellco.com/concealed_third_fastener.htm

This article below shows the Westley Richards (WR) dolls head third fastner photo at top left. Also shown is the Rigby rising bolt third fastner and the author calls it the best and most difficult to build. The WR is more difficult to build than the Rigby and you can see that when you view the photo of the WR dolls head and see that it is curved and that the curved surface area has to fit into the action in a zero clearance fit--which raises the question how can the fitting of the WR curved dolls head be accomplished to where it fits perfectly while at the same time the bolt fits perfectly into the rear lump of the barrels---the answer is that the action maker has life long experience.

https://www.riflemagazine.com/double-gun-bolting-systems

I know the customer is always right, but I find it surprising that they have incorporated a stalking safety into what appears to be a big game rifle.

You could hurt your thumb just before you got gored, tossed and stomped.

Parabola;

I agree with you the stalking safety would not be on my list of desires for a double rifle or would it be on the list for a Professional Hunter of dangerous game. As you mentioned it is one of those attachments on a dangerous game rifle that can get you killed------ another one being a sling.

Another issue about dangerous game double rifles is whether to have intercepting sears or not. There are double rifle action/lock designs (Holland style being one of them) that if the intercepting sear is tripped no amount of trigger pulling will overcome the hold of the intercepting sear in the lock to allow the trigger to be pulled to fire the barrel. If you have a double rifle with one of these type locks and the second barrel intercepting sear trips during the firing of the first barrel and you are being charged by a Cape buffalo you need to have a back up shooter at your side, or you may not survive. Some shooters order their double rifles without intercepting sears. The Boss style of intercepting sear can be made to allow very heavy pulling of the trigger to overcome it (if it has been tripped) and fire the barrel.

Kindest Regards;

Stephen Howell

Agree 100%. A stalking safety on a dangerous game dr is idiocy. Also, the breech thickness looks over done, even were it a .600 Nitro.
JR

To my way of thinking Purdey and Holland have very thick standing breeches on their double rifles for several of reasons including: (1) there is a need for the extra depth of the standing breech for the third fastner locking bolt to fit into for the the long travel it has to make to engage in the slot of the barrel extension, (2) in order to have much mass to try to prevent the movement of the breech away from the barrels during firing because they do not have a third fastner bolting system via a barrel extension that actually locks the the breech and barrels together such as WR and Rigby which will hold the barrel and breech together during firing---they have to depend on the draw/circle perfect fit and(3) you need a lot of action mass in order to get the weight of such a double rifle up to between 11 and 13 pounds in order to be able to tolerate the recoil and the standing breech is a good position to place extra mass that will aid in balancing the DR as well.

Double rifles without a "locking" third fastner (as the types WR and Rigby have for example) need more mass in other areas as well in order to keep the hinge pin from being pushed forward distorting the knuckle, especially in some of the magnum calibers where chamber pressure reaches 60,000 psi. Wider actions, and wider barrel lumps along with more mass in the knuckle and the perfect tight fitting of the draw of the rear lump against the circle has been methods used as heavy breeches alone will not keep the hinge pin (even though it is large diameter for a DR) in place very long with these kind of pressures if you do not have some way to keep all the force off the hinge pin. The draw fitting against the action circle when the action is closed should be of similar tight fit as the forward lugs of a rifle bolt fitting into the slots of the rifle barrel in a bolt action rifle when the bolt is turned downward and closed. very few craftsmen have this skill.

Stephen Howell

Stephen, you wouldn't know which issue of Shooting Sportsman carried the Venters article "Jointing And The Circle", would you? I don't own the book, but I am sure I have the old SS issue somewhere, just have no idea which one it was in. In the meantime I will be looking for a copy of the book. I'm sure there must be other jewels in it, as well.