Old British Sidelock - Pics

O

oberndorf

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Sharing some pics of my old sidelock SxS shotgun for the fans of vintage shotguns, nothing fancy like the new guns on the market but has some character given her age.

Henry Adkin and Sons, 57 Highstreet Bedford. Gun is in nice condition with Rigby style dipped edge sidelocks and has nitro proofs.
 
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Gun is made on the Gibbs & Pitt Patent No. 4170 and doen't have the typical cocking dogs/limbs coming out of the action that engages when opening the barrels to #### the hammers.



Pic of a typical sidelock action with cocking limbs engaging to the forend to #### the the hammers/tumblers



Some additional details of the Gibbs and Pitt patent I found on the net.
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Gibbs and Pitt design of lever cocking action, one of the first hammerless designs to be welcomed by the shooting public in the gradual changeover from hammerguns. Use of this action by Thorpe Bartrum reflects the high esteem the Gibbs & Pitt action design was held in by the buying public at the time. It was well designed, solidly built and retailed by nearly all gunmakers of the period. The action cocks on the movement of the toplever and then this is aided by the dropping of the barrels as the front barrel lump cams the Purdey bold rearwards, which in turn works upon the tumblers to bring them to full ####. This makes it quite impossible to reload the gun without recocking the locks and resetting the safety, a useful safety feature. Furthermore the tumblers have an additional bent, like a modern Browning OU, which can prevent the tumblers falling unintentionally.
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I have owned a few Henry Adkin ( not Atkin) guns, all have been very well made and finished. Some have been of high grade but none as high as this, this was probably the firm's best gun in the late 1880's and 1890's. I have had a few guns with this action with various maker's names, it was very popular for about 20 years and many ( or most) were at least partly made for them by Geoge Gibbs although some were also made by others under licence. I currently have a George Gibbs best quality gun using this action and I like it a lot, it is easy open/easy close, very nice to use.
 

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Beautiful gun Oberndorf. Thanks for posting.

A minor aside. If you post pics of it in the “Show us your SxS” sticky thread, we’ll always be able to find it.
 
Ashcroft said:
I have owned a few Henry Adkin ( not Atkin) guns, all have been very well made and finished. Some have been of high grade but none as high as this, this was probably the firm's best gun in the late 1880's and 1890's. I have had a few guns with this action with various maker's names, it was very popular for about 20 years and many ( or most) were at least partly made for them by Geoge Gibbs although some were also made by others under licence. I currently have a George Gibbs best quality gun using this action and I like it a lot, it is easy open/easy close, very nice to use.
Click to expand...

Lovely Gibbs, thanks for sharing the pic.
 
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