doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com West;ley Richards Serial Nos

I have a pair of 16s here, 5428 and 5429. According to the reference table on this website, that would make them 1850s guns. Can't be, they are toplever guns albeit damascus. Anyone care to offer a date for these? How about a complete lookup table? (Dave W yours doesn't look right).

DGHQ the Westley Richards site says the following about your guns #5428 and #5429
According to our records, your gun was made in 1878


http://www.westleyrichards.com/members/date.php

Mine #6148 was made in 1882.

Your guns were likely made around 1879-1880.

You can always go to Westley Richard's web site and click on the Members section. In that section you can enter the serial numbers and get the approximate dating on any of their guns.

I wonder how to use this lifting sight ?
I've found this Soper rifle in W.R. list.

Geno, this sight arrangment was used laying on your back with your feet pointed at the target. Seems quite awkward to me but it was used by most of the long range target shooters around 1880-1900.

Any photo or drawing available? I can hardly imagine how to do it laying on my back

Geno I'm at work now and I am blocked from photo hosting sites but, hopefully the following will work. They look extremely uncomfortable to me.

http://x5.freeshare.us/view/?122fs3941954.jpg

http://x5.freeshare.us/view/?122fs3942063.jpg

This is obviously the longest sight radius practicle (without getting into extension bars) and the longer the radius, the more accurate the sighting. However, finding a stable position from which to use the arrangement must have been a goodly challenge.

Shooting back position or supline is much more comfortable than shooting prone. It is not that hard to get stable and when getting up after 22 shots I feel rested and my back and left arm do not hurt as they do when shooting prone with a sling. If one uses a neck-knee sling you are very stable and recoil is not a problem as it sonemetimenes can be from the prone position.
Cheers,
fallingblock

The rifle is set up for what we call Creedmoor matches, which were all the rage in the 1870s. The game was typically shot at 1000 yards. It was an international game and teams crossed the ocean to compete. Perhaps the two most famous ranges were Wimbledon in in Britain (Yes, it was a rifle range before it was turned into a tennis park) and Creed's moor on Long Island in New York. Imagine a 1000 yard range on Long Island.<G>

No artificial support was allowed and the back position was commonly used. One of the reasons the back position was popular was recoil. These were large caliber (.44 and .45) rifle shooting 500+ grain lead bullets probably around 1300 fps. The rules limited gun weight to 10 pounds so that made for a lot of felt recoil. Considering that these men were small by today's standards it is not surprising they adopted a more recoil friendly position.

The game is still played today, or more accurately, has be resurrected again. The back position is no longer used as the rules allow heavier rifles and artificial support.

Glenn