The Lancaster '12/20' is an interesting gun, as KY Jon says, an attempt to get on the 'lighter the better' bandwagon between the wars. What some do not appreciate is that the core of the gun was a Birmingham designed and built gun by the famous Baker who was responsible for a multitude of the designs that we generally attribute to better known 'makers.
The Baker design which is often described as a 'self-opener' but is more accurately described as an 'assisted opener when un-fired' was retailed by many of the gun trade at the time, not just Lancaster and Grant who are best known for it, but most did not go down the 'ultra-light' route.
Given the much vaunted superior strength of the back-action design, these other makers could produce a stronger action at normal game gun weights rather than a lighter gun with average strength.
I am finishing off a good example of this in the form of a Blanch right now which I hope will become my go-to game gun for the next few years. I don't have the final weight yet but I guess it is going to be in the region of 6lb 10oz.
It will amuse me that I will no doubt receive many comments about my 'lovely new Blanch BAR action' which (in keeping with the Blanch tradition) it is fact strictly speaking a BACK action.
