doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com George Newnham, 29 Commercial Road, London

Circa 1882, BLE, 30-inch tubes (2-bar Damascus),14 5/8, 6lbs2, w/fresh (2017) London Proofs.




An odd offset of the top screw (wrist pin?) and a Greener crossbolt, not what I'd expect to see in a such a light gun.


Decent wood and leather pad.

Don't know if Newnham (from Portsmouth?) was known for "lightweight" guns, but he was involved in litigation for a barrel burst in the 1930s. A barrel obstruction was found to be the cause.

The weather here for the past few days has been stunning, which makes doing this pretty easy today.

More of George's early boxlock ejector:



Busy flats, eh?



Not sure I've seen this type of rib configuration before, what would you call this, swamped?

As I mentioned earlier, represented as having no choke to speak of either tube (.003) and fairly thin walls (20 & 23 K). If it hadn't just gone through proof I'd be more concerned. I'll put it through it's paces downtown tomorrow and we'll see what those numbers say.

pretty gun. I think the proof marks could he basis for a brief lecture on the subject.

I'm always wrong, but don't embarrass easily and might get this started



How did you date it to 1882 Lloyd?
I think the first proof string is in the middle of the flats and would be 1887-1896; with the bore 13 = .710" - .718"
I think is was proved again 1896-1904 with a bore of 13/1 = .719" - .728" for 1 1/8 oz. MAX m
It appears to carry a Birmingham date code of TB for 1968; for 3 TONS with bore .729"
The CIP London Proof 2017 with bore 18.5 mm

I think the barrels are 3 Iron. Can you post a close up where the pattern contrast is most apparent?

Dr. Drew: The asserted "date of production" is from Kirby Hoyt's webpage. If I had to guess, I'd be looking at the halberd's at the lower left corner of the barrel flats for the earliest date (I couldn't read them as I don't have the "books" here, you're seeing 1968?). Perhaps Kirby had information from another source? There are also some pretty faint halberds towards the front of the flats as well.

Three Iron? That'd be nice. Let me see what I can do.

One of the English guys will know whose action that is, Lloyd. I’ve seen it before, but, just like all the strippers I’ve seen dancing on a pole over the years, I don’t remember the name.

If the end of the rib with the bead on it rises at the muzzle, welcome to the dark side-you got a swamped rib.

Looks like a lot of fun.

Best,
Ted

Lower corner of the L flat

Ted: Always fun for me, but will it be for my soon-to-be 20-year old? I suspect he'll be mostly non-plussed about it until he's carrying it next Fall. His Christmas/birthday situation (born on 12/30) for this year was going to be pretty "ho-hum" as we're doing some international travel next summer (1st time ever) and his mom sees that as pretty-much covering his holiday gifts. That's fine, but I'm taking this approach that because his present grades and work situation has me pretty-much "over the moon" and I wanted some positive reinforcement to that effect.

Dr. Drew: Thank you for that. Weren't there different periods for the halberd codes?

I have a greener with the hand screw off center .remove the bottom plate see if it's marked

Kids don’t care what a gun weighs, Lloyd.

Good on you getting him something meaningful to celebrate the even keel he is keeping his life on. Not sure how I feel about a kid gun that has very specific ammunition requirements. I had a friend who thought nothing of loading up his 2 3/4” Remington 1100 with 3” rounds and shooting it at ducks. That gun lives at my house now, via a series of really strange twists, and, it is the epitome of a rode hard and put away wet gun. It has some issues with cycling that I’m working on, but, it is far enough gone that if I get it working, great, if not, oh well.

Kids approach life differently. Especially the males.

As always, good luck.

Best,
Ted