Bone Hill with steel barrels?

[zywina]

I got to handle my friends fathers Bonehill Sidelock Hammer gun with beautiful case hardeneing intact and 30" fluid steel barrels, with 1904 Nitro proof marks on the water table choked FULL/FULL!

The barrels sparkled and blinded me when looked down them! Nicest barrels I have seen on a vintage gun in a long time! The gun fit me perfect, no moving my head or eye's I always have seen Bonehills with damascus barrels, and if I do run across an older one it ussually has had the damascus barrels cut off and new set of steel added by other makers?

So can anyone tell me when Bonehill started to make fluid steel barrels ,and when they went out of buisness?
Thanks to any who respond, Dale Z

 

[Sharptail]

Zywina, C. G. Bonehill was one of those British inventive geniuses who added to the rich history of the Birmingham gun trade. When you handled the gun could you feel the inherent livliness, the "willingness" of the gun to point where you want it to? It is not only the quality of construction but the incredible feel which makes the gun such a useful tool.

The transition to steel barrels started in the last quarter of the 19th century. By 1909 there was no one left making Damascus barrels - the cost was just too great by comparison to fluid steel. Pity.

The full / full chokes on this example make it sound like a fowling piece. Do you know how much the gun weighs? Did you note whether the gun wears 1 1/8 or 1 1/4 oz. proof?

From the Internet Gun Club -

Christopher George Bonehill was born in 1831, son of a manufacturing ironmonger. He was apprenticed from about 1844 to 1851 to a Mr Aston (possibly William Aston & Co).
He established his own firm in 1851, but it was only in 1872 that he was recorded at 33 Charlotte Street with a factory in Morville Street.

In 1873 he moved the whole business to the Belmont Firearms Works, Belmont Row. It was probably about this time that the firm were appointed contractors to Her Majesty's War Department.

C G Bonehill was a Guardian of The Birmingham Proof House.

In 1880 he patented a shotgun action and stocks (No.1952).

In 1884 he registered four patents, No. 8469 covered barrels, No. 8471 covered a shotgun, and No.12586 taken out jointly with A J Simpson covered a shotgun.

In 1877 patent No. 3718 covered a shotgun action and in 1878 patent No. 2323 also covered a shotgun action.

In 1888 No.7823 covered double barrel breech actions and safety catches.

At about this time Thomas Naughton worked for the firm, he left in 1887 to join Holloway & Co as manager.

In 1895, patent No.12578 with A Tunstall covered a Martini action with a detachable barrel. There may have been another patent for a .22 conversion.

Virtually nothing is known about the firm from about 1900 to 1965 when they closed. Presumably, they contributed to the war effort 1914-1918, and presumably they suffered a lack of business in the period 1920-1935. From 1939 to 1965 they would have seen a gradual decline in business.

The firm were volume suppliers of sporting guns and rifles for export. They produced ball & shot guns and combination guns, and they made the Britannia air rifle. They were pioneers in the mechanisation of gun manufacture, making the "Belmont Interchangeable" shotguns.

From about 1900, C G Bonehill were the main suppliers of rifles to the "Society of Miniature Rifle Clubs". The Society was founded to encourage rifle shooting amongst working class men, and it was largely responsible for establishing smallbore rifle shooting as a sport in England. For this purpose, old .303 Martini-Enfield rifles were re-barrelled to .22 rimfire and sold at very reasonable prices.

Sharptail

 

[zywina]

Sharptail thanks for all the info.! It is I just never seen any Bonehills made after 1900 with steel barrels unless it was converted by other English Houses. The gun wears proofs of 1-1/4 oz loads, so I new it must be a fowling piece even thought the weight was nice between the hands, would make a great grouse gun up here in the thick woods! My friends dad shot back to back trap score of 25/25 with this fine gun back in the day!

I guess the transition to hammer to hammerless shotguns took longer than Damascus to steel barrels, as I have a Ball & Shot gun from Birmingham from the 1920's that has hammers still on them!

I started to collect and shoot vintage shotguns not long ago, maybe 3-4 years, as I find that quality built into a gun is just a rewarding than a beautiful picture hanging in the living room! It is great when art and practical tools meet up together, thanks again Dale Z in Thunder Bay!

 

[Win/64]

Zywina, C. G. Bonehill was one of those British inventive geniuses who added to the rich history of the Birmingham gun trade. When you handled the gun could you feel the inherent livliness, the "willingness" of the gun to point where you want it to? It is not only the quality of construction but the incredible feel which makes the gun such a useful tool.

The transition to steel barrels started in the last quarter of the 19th century. By 1909 there was no one left making Damascus barrels - the cost was just too great by comparison to fluid steel. Pity.

Sharptail

I have a Clabrough dated 1914 with Damascus barrels Nitro proofed. Damascus was available long after 1909 probably on a special order basis.

 

[Sharptail]

Perhaps I should have been more specific. The last British made Damascus barrels were turned out by Greener in 1909. However many (most?) manufacturers sourced their raw barrels from outside sources. Many of those sources were Belgian. I have no real idea when the last Belgian Damascus barrels were made. It is also possible that many of the larger companies had barrel stock warehoused, and that they used those blanks well after production had ceased. I did not mean to infer that 1909 was a hard cut off date for Damascus barreled guns, only that no new Damascus barrel blanks were made in England after that date. Sorry for any confusion.

In any case, once it was established that fluid steel barrels were no worse than Damascus it did not take long for the economics of barrel production to spell the end of the beautiful old tubes.

As far as hammer guns are concerned, well, the era never did end and many new hammer guns are produced every year. Even Purdey offeres a 20 gauge hammer gun.


Sharptail