doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Very nice Beesley?

I'm sure that Mr Beesley, being a very accomplished gunmaker and inventor, had his own design of lockwork made up for him by the Wolverhampton lockmakers. By examining a number of guns we might find a Beesley style of lock.

Most of Beesleys production was best quality. I don't recall seeing a second or third quality by him.

Rocketman, sorry to have overlooked your question. Generally,I have noted higher Whitworth tube numbers on later guns, however, a gunmaker may have tubes dating from the 1880's in stock and not use them until the 1930's; I believe they started numbering the tubes with the introduction of chopper lumps as a way of keeping pairs together. This would account for the absence of numbers on early dovetailed Whitworth barrels.
All the best, Mal

Thanks, Mal. I'm going to get more information on this Beesley issue. I understood that he used his own patent for his best guns. That may well have been bad information. I'll "collect" some "fern" chisled fence guns and see what we find.

In a catalog issued sometime after 1912, Beesley offers four qualities of sidexside guns. Two are boxlocks, and a third is their "Special Quality" sidelock for 75bps. Their "Standard" is their highest quality sidelock at 120bps.

The Bass Pro Beesley does not have the "normal" Beesely fences , but has the fences commonly found on Army Navy, Monk, and many others that had guns made for them by Webley Scott, Hollis Bentley and Playfair etc. Those fences are pictured in the catalogs of both Birmingham makers. From what I can see, the fences pictured on page one of this thread do not match the cataloged best fences, either. The pin placement in the sideplates of the Cataloged Beesley Patent best , do not match either gun pictured with this thread.

Thank you ever so much, DH. Very good information. I spoke with Dig Hadoke about this issue last night. He is of the opinion that this gun was a made as a best. I defer to superiour knowledge and accept that it is OQ1. That said, we would have a BV2-OQ1-CC5 = $9000 if my first estimate of CC5 is correct. That price does not match up with Dig's and CJ0's (remember, CJO had the gun in hand) estimate. So, to match my original estimate, we would have to have BV2-OQ1-CC6.6 = $5,500. From the photos, Dig estimated $7,000 = BV2-OQ1-CC5.8. Note that it is always OK to reverse engineer the price chart from an estimate or price to see what factors the estimate yields and consider whether those factors pass the horse sense test. Thanks one and all for the input. Jay Cee, that is about all I can do from descriptions and photos.

$5500! $7000! Come on, get real.

That gun has been poorly recolored, poorly restocked, hotblued, and the engraving looks buffed.

And that's just what we can tell from the pics.

We do not know if it is proof or its bbl wall thicknesses.

Judging from the quality of work done on it already, I bet it has other issues, too.

I wouldn't spend a dime on it.

OWD

The proof issue would be easy to settle: Measure the chambers and the bores. If the chambers have not been lengthened and the bore diameter is less than .740, it's in proof. Wall thickness doesn't render a gun out of proof, although anything under .020 on a 2 1/2" gun would certainly merit caution on the part of the buyer.

OWD they are doing exactly what has been preached and preached on here...

Don't price a gun on name alone.

That OWD, is called playing the best gun buying game - you either have the means for a top-conditioned gun or not!
...and if not, you have to go down a notch or two in your expectations.
Now to put this into proper order, those Lefevers and LCs you want, if in the same condition as that Beesley that puts you off so much would cost you $800-1500.
Different rules are in play.

although Rocketman's gun value formulas are fascinating. This gun is a dog that no math can save,just like the LCs and such that go for such `short money. junk is junk.

strangely i have seen different beesley at david condons place with 27" tubes and ic/ic barrels. my assumption was tubes were "circumcised", but i didn't look at it closely because i have zero english in me and don't really care for what they made or make. romans had an empire when english were in muuuud huts and italians are better craftsmen anyway.