So who made those Lang, Reilly, Blanch breech loader actions and lump barrels in the 1855-57 period...or the H. Holland and Purdey pin-fire breech-loaders in 1857-58 etc. if not London?
Argo44, I believe the first pinfires by Lang, Reilly and Blanch were made in London, as much as any gun was made in London at the time. The locks would have been sourced from the Black Country, barrel tubes from Birmingham or other local forges, or imported from Belgium, actioned in London, proofed in London, and finished by the aforementioned London firms, and possibly others.
It would not have taken long for Birmingham to start developing its own actioning skills, and perhaps the
Field trials marked the point when the pinfire became a viable direction for the industry to take. On the basis there were so few pinfire game guns in circulation prior to the trials, maybe 1859 is the point from which the Birmingham trade started to take notice. It would have had to coincide with an increased demand for the guns from the sporting public, a demand that was being promoted first and foremost by the key London makers.
Here is a modern breech-loading action forging, probably not far removed from what the first action filers obtained from Birmingham forges. Perhaps someone knows how many hours of work with hand tools it would have taken to transform a forging such as this into a finished action?
