doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com In case you don't believe in Best Boxlocks

About 15 years ago at the Las Vegas show,I spotted an English gun case I wanted to buy. The gun in it looked like a nice one, but I didn't pay much attention to it because I really just wanted the case. The owner didn't want to sell the case alone. When I got back home, I gradually realized the seller wasn't asking all that much for the gun and case. I sent him a check,and when the case arrived I was amazed to see how nice a gun the Joseph Harkom really was.I've enjoyed it ever since. About three years ago I found another,not entirely original but almost better since it had been rebarreled by Boss with best chopper lump barrels sometime in the fifties.Does anyone know if Harkom records are available? Incidentally, the Harkom actions bear a striking resemblance to those Daniel Fraser used in his double rifles. Was there some connections between the two shops?

rmb, no reason to be surprised at action similarity. Almost without doubt, both sourced machined actions from Birmingham; maybe even barreled actions or complete guns in-the-white. The smaller makers seem to have made good use of the trade. For now, we can only guess at how much work was done in the shop of/by Mr. Harkom his very self. However, we can for sure appreciate the end product, how ever he got it done, that Mr. Harkom got out.

DDA

Having spoken to a lot of Birmingham gunmakers - nobody has any folk memory of who made guns/parts/barreled actions for Harkom pre-WW2, or pre-WW1 if I think about it.

It appears that the better Scottish gunmakers had their own men and did the vast majority of the work themselves.

After WW1 more and more began to buy in part or fully completed guns from AA Brown (whom made Dickson boxlocks), Webley and the other Birmingham wholesalers.

Smallbore mentions 'Best Guns' as non-ejectors; so here's an example from my own collection. It is a Midland Gun Company of Birmingham double 12 based on their catalogued gun called The Best Boxlock Ejector De-lux except for some reason it was made as a non-ejector but more curious still it has all the added extras that were options for this model such as single trigger, 3" chambers, ivory bead foresight and solid gold oval. Apologies in advance for poor photo quality. Lagopus.....

Nice gun.....but the wood work is a long way from being best.

Beautiful gun Michael.
Joe, you're cracked !...and brutally honest ,alway's good for a chuckle with the morning coffee

Lovely engraving on that gun, Lagopus. Is that a pin next to the triggerguard screw (my apologies for not using the proper Brit gunmaker terms)? If so, what does it do?

Doverham, sorry I don't know the answer to that one; maybe Smallbore can answer.

Joe, it's just what Midland Gun refer to as the 'Best Boxlock' that they do. It is quite a light stock but I don't think that the photo does it justice. It could just be as the customer chose for that gun. I thought that I would just illustrate it in reply to Smallbores comments on higher end non-ejectors as an example.

Thanks Newf. Curiously the added extras would have bought this:



Their sidelock non-ejector 20 bore 'Dreadnought' model and couple of flats of cartridges for each gun! Lagopus.....

Dig and Lagopus Thanks very much for the pics,they are beautiful !Could someone please tell me what is wrong with the woodwork on that Midland?

The Harkoms are very nice, but I'd like them better if they had scalloped actions.

JC