I will have to read Hawker.

But again, just because you outsource certain parts does not mean you are not making the gun. At one point, a lot of London's gun makers were use damascus bbls by Lancaster. I think just about everyone outsourced action forgings and locks. Once fluid-compressed steel took over, of course the makers outsourced bbl production. Most of them didn't have the capacity to do that kind of work in house.

But I don't see why this matters. So what if certain parts were outsourced? A gun maker put those parts together and created a firearm out of them. In London, these gun maker's gave their guns distinct looks. A Boss does not look like a Holland, a Purdey does not look like a Woodward, and Lang is not a Churchill and on and on.

As for patent actions, none of the London makers called A&D guns their bests. Most of them weren't really in the business of making them (except for Churchill). If a customer wanted one, it only made sense to bring in it in the white and finish it off. Of course, finishing a gun off still leaves a lot of gunmaking. The shaping of the action, engraving, style of stock (a Churchill stock doesn't look like a Boss stock), etc, left gunmakers with a lot of room to do their own thing. I've seen J. Robertson (Boss) boxlocks and they are a hell of a lot nicer than anything I've ever seen from Army & Navy.

What about other patent actions? Well, H&H was having their Climax guns made in Birmingham. Later on their boxlocks and guns like the Dominions were outsourced.

I'm pretty sure J. Blanch was buying actions in th white from Scotts and then finishing them off in house, at least early on. I've seen some early Churchill's built on Murcott-patent actions and I once saw a best-quality Purdey that was not on a Beesley. I contacted Purdeys about this gun and they confirmed that the action for this gun came from Birmingham (it was a Rogers patent) and they finished it.

But for the most part, the London makers were doing a lot of gun making themselves. The idea that these guys were just taking and fulfilling orders is not true.


OWD

Good Gun Alerts & more:

www.DogsandDoubles.com