doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com visual interest versus name recognition & cost

Took the gun to visit my old digs at MW Reynolds today. Mark went over it with his usual fine-toothed comb and pronounced it fit for service (the tubes are 26 thou at their thinnest point). He also suggested 7/8 ounce loads for targets, with perhaps 1-ounce for game. Moreover, he even had a tatty old hammergun case (just laying-around) that fit it perfectly (I guess it's a sign). I'd spoken earlier with the fellow that did most (if not all) of the fine gun service work for Mark when I was working there (Terry Nicholson) and he's agreed to bend it back 1/4-inch to neutral and add-in a skosh more drop at the heel. That should get me in the ballpark for a better fit (at least for me), so... It's coming together nicely now.



Oak & Leather always does good things for these old girls, eh(?) and this one fit like it had been made for it (it wasn't, of course, it's a hard-used old H&H hammergun case). I also have it on good-authority that those barrels look to be pretty close their original finish and that they are not Damascus but "best English laminated-steel", which makes sense (as I was struggling to discern a pattern on them). Also from discussions with my "resident authority", we were both surprised that these dolphin-style hammers are not "hooded" (a vestige left-over from primers & nipple days, which in 1866 would still be fairly common) making me wonder if they are original to the gun(?). Not that it would matter, as they match the gun very well and have nearly-perfect symmetry . There's always something more to do on these old artifacts, and it's very temping to "tart them up" a bit (adding leather pad was also discussed), but...I'll simply use a slip-on pad (for the added length), and then just clean up the case a little (sterilizing it first, as a moth flew out of it when we disturbed it at the shop... causing a mild stir), get a replacement strap made for the left side, and perhaps get the handle repaired (making it safe to use for carry), but... that's about it (I should have paid closer-attention to Mark Gruber's class on case refurbishment & repair at Whittington in late-April, darn-it).

This thing is ancient. Guns made just before it were either Lefaucheux actions, or pinfires, or both...

not being familiar with the action, is this a slide & drop gun? i have an 1875 dougall lockfast....and the 1860's were transition period from lefaucheux actions to stronger locking systems. from memory, crudgington & baker grouped four or five patents together as slide & drop patents.

certainly a handsome gun.

best regards,

tom

Tom: No, not slide & drop, just a cammed-lever on a single bite. You aren't kidding about it being transitional, this provisional patent (#1785) was evidently issued in 1867, almost a year after this gun was produced. It's marked as a separate Lang's patent number on the gun (#46) and is only mentioned on pages 126 & 127 in Crudgington & Baker's book. Any similar examples that I've been able to find online (or in this book) while being only a few serial numbers earlier from this unit...are very different. Anything much later seems to have a toplever so...probably not many examples ever made, nor are there many left. This design clearly wasn't all that successful for them.

Handsome is a good word for it though, thankyou (beauty of course being in the eye-of-the-beholder). It's visually interesting for me, at least, which is what drove this whole exercise. I shipped it off today, so any real test of its relative merits are still to come. Terry thinks he'll have it ready when he returns to Colorado next month.

an old friend, who enjoyed nice shotguns, fine watches and diamonds....told of a diamond trader of his acquaintance, who, when showing a prospective buyer his wares, would suggest a nicer diamond by saying _ "if you'd like something with a little more romance".

these fine old guns, in well kept condition, simply offer "a little more romance".

best regards,
tom

Tom: Well...who can't use a little more romance in their lives, eh? I just didn't realize that "romance" was what I was dealing with here. The other thought that, sadly, keeps going through my mind is what my paternal grandfather (& my namesake) would occasionally churn out... "There's no fool like an old fool".

FWIW: I've read more-deeply into Crudgington & Baker's book and learned a bit more about this action. T. Saville's patent number 1559 of 1864 seems to be origination of this particular system, with the authors speculating that Lang's then purchased said patent somewhere along the way, which might account their (Lang's) patent claim on the action of this gun. There was also talk about how much work was being performed in this period that converted pinfires to what became the now-standard centerfire system, so...a very "transitional" period indeed. The authors also allayed some of my fears by mentioning that they had actually used a gun with this type of action and were fairly pleased with it...