Update
22nd March 2015
Welcome
to the Heritage Guns Update for March 2015
Firstly,
a notice of great importance:
We
have finally completed the redesign of the Heritage Guns web site. I am most
pleased with the finished result and would welcome any comments, especially notice
of any typos or unfortunate whoopsies!
What
is most important is that any of you with a link to our web site in your ‘Favourites’
list should check that it still works. I will not bore you with the details but
although our domain name (URL) remains the same, the links to each page will be
different from the old web site and any links you have must be resaved.
If
you are having trouble, just type in www.heritageguns.co.uk,
press enter and when you land on our new Index page, save the page as your new
Heritage Guns link. Finally delete any old HG links to avoid confusion later.
Another
development of interest is that we now have a Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Heritage-Guns/1456166597974211.
Facebook
is not everybody’s cup of tea but we will post photos and news there that are
not relevant to our main web site pages. For example, I recently posted a photo
from the Beinfeld show in Las Vegas while actually there. Also you will find
some photos of the internals of two interesting guns I was recently working on
and discovered rare patents inside.
I
hope that spring has arrived wherever you are reading this.
East
Anglia has been bathed in lovely sunshine for most of today and I celebrated
this morning by joining a group of good friends to smash (and miss) a few clay
pigeons. Of course as soon as we were committed, the sun went in, the breeze
got up and it turned decidedly chilly. Predictably, once back in the clubhouse,
the sun came back out!
As
usual I was the only one shooting ‘one of those old fashioned muskets with the
barrels the wrong way round’! Mind you, I came 3rd in our squad of
ten so there were a few red faces in the OU camp!
The
Troublesome Twosome, our labradors Moss & Tilly,
have been making life interesting with Tilly’s first season.
Moss
is a couple of ounces lighter than by design so he is not terribly interested but
the young floozy is determined to titillate his fancy and her behaviour is
quite beyond the pale!
Moss’s
digestive tract has continued to behave itself with no recent emergency dashes
to the vet. I will not bore you with gory details, suffice to say that all is
not perfect in the latter stages of his bowel and I suspect he may not be long
for this world.
My
last US show was the Beinfeld Antique Arms and Knives show in Las Vegas and
although quieter than we hoped, was a great success. It coincided with the Shot
Show which meant that we had quite a few new faces in the aisles, having a look
at how the other half lives!
In
a few weeks I am off to the Southern Side by Side Spring Classic in North Carolina
which is always a fantastic show for us. This event has gone from strength to
strength over the last 5 years and I am very proud to sponsor the Black Powder
event. This year the winner and runner-up awards are embroidered Heritage Guns gunsmithing
aprons as modelled by yours truly at all our shows. However these will be
specially designed ones with the event’s details arranged around our logo. I
thought these would be particularly appropriate for a black powder event as cleaning
guns afterwards can be a very messy business!
As to guns:
We have been fortunate to
come across some lovely guns in the last few months.
New to our workshop are:
A couple of Dickson Round
actions, one to be TIG sleeved and the other with damascus
barrels;
A very lovely 20b Powell,
lift-up toplever hammergun, also in need of sleeving;
A fine 12b Lancaster assisted–opening
SLE with 30” damascus and a lovely piece of wood;
And a 12b BiW Purdey
hammergun with TIG sleeved barrels and very nice replacement wood.
Well underway are:
A couple of Henry Atkin 12b
SLE’s, one a sidelever;
Two RUL 12b hammerguns, one by
Williamson and the other by the Scottish ‘maker Maloch;
A 16b damascus
hammergun by GE Lewis;
And a .410 RUL hammergun by
Wilkinson (converted from a double rifle).
At the Southern S/S Classic
you can expect to see:
Two lovely 28b hammerguns, one
by Watson Bros is in quite extraordinary condition and the other
sleeved and restored apparently by its maker, William Evans;
A
fine 12b, damascus barrelled SLE by the Scottish ‘maker
Charles Ingram;
A
rare 16b RUL hammergun by Boss & Co;
Another
Boss & Co RUL hammergun, this one in 12b;
A
spectacular FT Baker Needham patent 12b SLE, a real sleeper;
Another
sleeper, a Henry Atkin Thumblever Hammerless Sidelock with masses of original
colour;
A very beautiful cased, toplever
12b SLE by Henry Atkin with ‘makers replacement steel barrels;
A
Stephen Grant sidelever 12b SLE with lovely replacement wood;
A
very rare 16b Murcott ‘Mousetrap’ with 30” damascus
barrels;
A classic Paddison era, back
action SLNE by Boss & Co;
A
lovely cased toplever H&H Royal 12g;
Another
12b H&H SLE, this time a Perkes patent action;
Yet another H&H SLE in
16b;
A
12g Roper & Sons, Gibbs & Pitt patent sidelock with damascus
barrels choked Full & Full;
A
cased 12b J Purdey & Sons SLE;
A
Murcott 12b hammergun with 30” damascus barrels;
A
BLE by Perkes Adams & Co in wonderful condition with some CH remaining;
And last but very much not
least a
3” nitro proof RUL hammergun by Edmund Woods, a wildfowler if ever I saw one.
Full details can be found via
links on the Stock Page.
Most of the guns mentioned
above are nitro proofed for 2 3/4" cartridges and all are pre-1897.
Anyway, enjoy your guns and
shooting wherever you are.
Toby Barclay
Links to our show venues can
be found on our Home page.