doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Self opening O/U

Terry Wieland excelled in Gray`s Sporting Journal, declaring the Boss O/U with Robertson`s ejectors as "self-opening". A lot of colleagues rightly wrote on Facebook he was wrong. But no one reacted to Wieland's statement there aren`t another self opening O/U. Actually there are only two that shotguns. These are their locks. Maybe someone knows?
To refresh the memory https://wp.me/p461yQ-jF

You might be able to add this over/under to the self [assisted] opening list. It is an odd side opening, over/under with ejectors. There are no proofmarks on it, so I am not sure of it's country of origin.

A well used later series Browning O/U will qualify as "self opening", too.

Dickson made a few 'side opening' O/U guns. I believe that D Mackey Brown's O/U is an easy opener (assisted opening) gun. A true Self Opener springs open whether the locks are cocked or not. Purdey and Henry Atkin come to mind.

Also, Lancaster offered a Spring Open boxlock not patterned on the ANSON & DEELY action. Pretty cool, but I have never seen a 'best' version of the gun... always 'colonial' models.

The Beesley designed self opener action used by Lancaster is a true self opener and the action could be had in both sidelock and body action models. I own 2. Both top quality, the sidelock being “Best grade”. Lancaster called this the Model A.
The body action gun I own is not colonial grade, it’s the nicest grade that Lancaster made in that action. It only cost a few pounds less than the sidelock model in 1896.

Body action circa 1896


Sidelock circa 1894

In Daryl's pics above, you can clearly see two very small concave areas in the outer edge of the breech face, where the barrels mate to it. Not being able to see a view of the breech face proper, are those the exits for escaping gases, as in a primer piercing where gasses exit the primer and have to be vented away to keep them from going into the firing pin holes and destroying the stock at the wrist? Usually when a maker provided for this they cut tiny channels in the breech face to the outside for the gasses to exit, but I don't recall seeing the exits ever having a "treatment" of this sort.

From their shape and position they look like they may have been intended to avoid catching on an insufficiently seated primer?

Stan, and Parabola, here's a view of the standing breech. It appears Parabola is correct.


'

The distance between the cuts look quite a bit less than the distance between the firing pins. Those two distances should be the same if they are to affect primers, no?

Crazy cool gun though.

Brent, I see what you are saying. Maybe just part of the "design and decoration".