doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Unusual W.S. Riley

Here are some more pictures of the "smoke stack" gun from the unusual hammers thread. The top rib has W.S. Riley, Patentee and Maker, Eagle Gun Works, Birmingham. It was proofed in London. He had a patent, #491,of 1866 covering striker, extractor, half cocking, and loaded indicators. The gun has patent number 194 stamped several places and 419 on the barrels. As you can see from the pictures the cone on top has a piece missing that ran from the top to the bottom. The eagle trade mark on the trigger guard has NOTHING WITHOUT LABOUR in the banner. Any guesses as to the purpose of the cone? Most think it may have had a piece to block the dominent left eye of a right handed shooter. This gun caused some revisions to the gunmakers database on the Internet Gun Club. Any comments on the gun would be appreciated. Thank you.

From a quick search:

"Nothing without Labour" - "Absque labore nihil"

“Nothing Without Labour” was the motto that Northampton Saints’ founder Reverend Samuel Wathan Wigg led his original Rugby team with.

The family motto of the Steele family.

Pete

That "Reefer Holder" on the gun is a bit bigger than the indicator pin in the patent drawing, but is probably the item K in the drawing.

Thanks Pete. What date would that have been? The gun was likely made 1878-80. Maybe Riley was a rugby fan, or Reverend Wigg a shotgun fan.
MP, that is too cool the way you pulled up the patent drawing so fast. I don't really understand how a lever could put the hammers on half cock when breaking open the gun. Now I wish the missing part was still there even more. If I could find some good pictures of an original gun I would be tempted to have a replacement made to take the gun back to its original design. Thank you very much.

Eightbore wouldn't they have put two on the gun? If they did the sight picture would be very narrow.

Could we see a picture of the top of the barrel with the piece removed, is it threaded on or? Seems big for a loaded chamber indicator, is there a hole into the barrel?

MP, the picture of the top of the barrels does have the cone removed. The bottom of the cone has knurling on it that mates with the knurling on the barrels that you can see. The screw that passes through the cone into the top of is both slotted and has knurling on it so the cone can be rotated and locked down. The screw does not go through to the chamber. I don't think the loaded chamber indicators that are mentioned are part of the cone. The firing pins, only the left is original, are very long with a spring. If there is a shell in the chamber the long pins are pushed out enough that the L on top of pin is visible. If the hammers are lowered on an empty chamber the L cannot be seen. At half cock the spring pushes the pin out far enoungh that the L can be seen with or without a shell in the chamber. As you can see the pin has Patn on it. Perhaps the cone had a bar attached to it that contacted the hammers on the small protrusion just above the striking nose that could be slid back to put both hammers on half cock? I doubt it, as there isn't much of a protrusion and no evidence of unusual wear. Thanks for all your help guys. I've already learned alot in a short time.

Any chance that it was a pressure testing setup? Seems silly to put that on a very handsome, well made gun, but just a guess.
JL

It's a Gilbert's Sight Corrector, as soon as I can figure out what the heck that is and find more info I'll post.

Pages 230, 234 and 235 "The British Shotgun" volume Two Crudgington & Baker.