doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Auction alert - E. M. Reilly 4 bore SxS...

George,
Did you ever get the specifics of the gun: weight, chamber length, barrel weight?

George, there is a serious Reilly collector on the Custom Rifle section of this forum. Post over there and he will answer your questions.

George, The Reilly records seem to be lost. The company was acquired by "Riggs for Sports" who stated their intention to continue to use the Reilly name on guns; from the illustrations in the Riggs catalog which announced the acquisition, I'd date it well before WW1 (high wheel bicycles are shown). Whether Riggs even got the Reilly records when they bough the name would be pure speculation.

Send me your mailing address, and I'll mail you a copy of that catalog.

tbuffum@bendbroadband.com

Those stalking safeties aren't too common on shotguns. You think it was originally a rifle ?

PM: I'll get Jim to do the measurements & post them.

Thanks Bill: I'll post a note over there.

jOe: I asked Jim about that & he believes that it was originally a pinfire SxS shotgun. 36 inches would be a bit long for a rifle, don't you think?

Best Regards, George

George, my friend Terry Buffum is the person I was referring to and you should utilize his information. He is a dedicated collector and researcher. Good luck. Bill Murphy

Might've had another set of barrels or been rebarreled into a shotgun.

http://dogsanddoubles.com/?p=281

I looked again....I'm having trouble seeing it as ever a "pin fire".

I just received this bit of information from the auctioneer when I asked him for any background on the gun:

"It came from the Robert McDevitt Estate from Binghamton, NY. They owned the funeral home in Binghamton since the 1800's. they left $80,000,000 in IBM stock to LeMoyne College and the Catholic Diocese of Syracuse as they had no children. You can google their name to see the press that they received when they left the money last year after Mr. McDevitt died. His mother was the first secretary to the first President of IBM and accumulated IBM stock over the years. They lived very modestly on LeRoy Street in Binghamton, NY. The gun was found in the attic next to the train set that we sold for $9,900 at our New Year's Day Auction. If you google E.M. Reilly you will see an article from an auction in the early 1900's of one advertised in an auction in England. It stated the gun cost 50 English Pounds when it was new. I believe that would be comparable to about $5,000 in today's money. I believe being in the attic might have caused the rust. Hope this helps. Bernie Brzostek"

Another piece of the puzzle put in place......George

Joe-







Two things give it away as a pinfire action.
First thing is the fence detail.
Second thing is the very shallow section of the standing breeches.

Could definitely have either been a two-barrel set (and the present case either made later or it could have been delivered with two cases) or it could have been set up at some time with the shotgun tubes.
I'm fairly certain that the existing barrels were originally set up for pinfire ammunition too.
I'd a much better (in the hands would be best) look at the tops of the breech end of the barrels on the chamber-tops.
I expect to find dovetailed steel where the pinfire firing pin cuts were originally.


Cheers
Tinker

The fences do look odd...

I'm seeing what appears to be re-bounding locks with stalking safeties that appear original to the gun.

My Chrystal ball is kinda cloudy this moring....but from what I see it wouldn't surprise me too much if she had never been fired.