For a brief period in the transition to hammerless breach loaders, gunmakers produced true side cockers, i.e. guns with a side lever which cocked the gun, as opposed to levers which only opened the gun. One of the first hammerless breach loaders in the U.S. was Uncle Dan Lefever's sidecocker. Uncle Dan's wonderful creation had a separate push-button opener, in addition to the lever on the left side of the lock plate, which cocked the gun. In England, I know that Charles Lancaster made a true sidecocker with a lever on the right hand side of the gun, which both cocks and opens the gun, like the beautiful 1878 Lancaster sidecocker made for the Duke of Arbuthnot, which I have for sale in the guns for sale section of this bulletin board. Obviously, I would like to increase awareness of the availability of my Lancaster sidecocker, but I am also curious as to how many other gunmakers made true side-cocking guns. I have only seen these two.
