doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com The pinfire game gun

When I was offered a Jeffery pinfire, I was very pleased. The Jeffery family of gunmakers, from Poole, Plymouth, Lymington, Dorchester, and Farnham has always interested me. Having seen examples of their early fine provincial muzzle-loaders, and their later London centre-fire guns, had me imagining what a Jeffery pinfire might look like, with great anticipation. To my disappointment, it turned out the gun was signed Jeffrey, not Jeffery. As I would later realize, confusing the two spellings is common in on-line gun discussions, and even in the 19th century the name caused confusion -- an early business record for a gun maker William Jeffrey in Farnham, Surrey, turns out to have been a misprint of his name.

The gun is a 12-bore double-bite screw grip rotary under-lever pinfire sporting gun of typical form, of the kind commonly made in the Birmingham trade in the late 1860s. It has a serial number, 483, which may be from the original maker, or the retailer. The gun has 30" damascus barrels, stamped "roses patent" and "No. 20," indicating they were made by the Rose Brothers of the Hales-Owen Mills & Forge, under their patent for making machine-forged damascus barrel tubes. These were a cheaper option than hand-forged barrels, and can be found on guns built for the trade appearing under any name. Knowing the Rose Brothers barrels were British-made might have had an appeal, as reportedly most gun barrel tubes in the trade were sourced from Belgium, though British-proofed. The barrels have Birmingham proofs and barrel makers' marks "HT" and "E.C." (the latter possibly for Edwin Cook, barrel maker 1867-1878). The top rib is signed "Jeffrey London", as are the back-action locks. The name is probably as close to London this gun ever got, and adding "London" was a common marketing ploy for selling lesser-grade Birmingham guns in towns and villages, for the big-city cachet. Was the Jeffrey name that of an ironmonger? Possibly. Or was it an attempt to trick a buyer by using a respectable-sounding name? Perhaps, but I suspect I'll never know. In any case there are no recorded gunmakers at the time with the name "Jeffrey", as far as I can find.

While an inexpensive gun with dubious markings, it is nevertheless adequately made, and typical of guns put up by the Birmingham trade. The fences are well shaped, the hammer noses curiously long and smooth, a radius has been cut to strengthen the action bar, and the form of the under-lever, lacking a central fixing screw visible from below, is oddly attractive. The generic "trade" engraving and overall plainness does mark the gun as a basic offering, though when new it must have looked quite handsome to someone with a limited purse. The gun has seen considerable use, the bores are pitted, and it weighs 7 lb 9 oz.











If anyone has an actual Jeffery pinfire, I'd like to see it!