View Full Version : CG Bonehill 12ga
Mike Jones
12-04-2010, 02:12 PM
I have been looking at a C.G. Bonehill but have not been able to find a whole lot of information about them. The barrels are bright and the lock up is tight. It has something called "bushed firing pins". Of course the salesman is trying to make a sale but said this was a good dea, but I wanted to double check. Is this gun a good value? Thanks for any help.
http://www.featherandfly.com/British_Shotgun_12gauge.html
Mark Ouellette
12-05-2010, 08:34 AM
Mike,
Nothing against a British gun but save your money and buy a Parker. The Bonehill may be worth the price but once you buy it I hope you like it a lot. If you buy it at a fair price it will be hard to resell if you decide to sell and buy something else. Since this is a dealer I think the price will not be deep dscounted! Be careful.
Mark
Richard Flanders
12-05-2010, 04:03 PM
I looked at a Bonehill 12ga hammer gun at a Mich gun show last year. It was apparently some sort of presentation or prize gun for a trap shoot of some sort. The engraving showed glass ball shooting... or was it the butt plate?? One or the other. The seller wanted $1800 and was VERY motivated. He all but chased me down the aisle...
Jay Gardner
12-05-2010, 05:33 PM
Owned a 28 ga Bonehill with 28" Damascus barrels. Did a lot of digging but never found out much about the manufacturer. Story was most of the Bonehill records were destroyed during war. Ended up selling the Bonehill without a regret. There are a lot of 12 Bonehill box locks out there and there has been nothing special about the ones that I have seen.
Francis Morin
12-05-2010, 10:43 PM
If you encounter a pre-1913 mfg. LC Smith, it may well have bushed firing pins- a lot of extra machining to allow removed/replacement of a broken or worn short firing pin, but at that time and era, one of the many features of the fine doubles produced by the Hunter brothers- You need a properly fitted spanner turnscrew to remove the bushing, threaded and machined with a beveled surface to insure a flush fit into the breech face- some even had an extra threaded hole for a copper retaining machine screw.
Later Smiths eliminated that extra cost and had a slightly different design firing pin- to remove them for replacement, you just removed the lock plate and then pushed the pin back from the breech with a pin punch- simple-
But the British guns have featured bushed firing pins, or strikers as our Limey pals often call them. As far as the Bonehill and the fine fotos you have taken of it- I am way out of my "comfort zone" on that make and model- but do recall in reading Nash Buckingham that he at one time in his youth had a Bonehill double 12 bore. As he shot a great deal in his long gunning career, any shotgun he owned may well have seen a lot of usage, so perhaps they were a good sturdy field gun.
But as I way prefer both Parkers and Smiths, I concur with the advice given by another PGCA member- I'd look for a Parker to fit your gunning needs. If for no other reason than we have very competent Parker gunsmiths available, not every good gunsmith has experience with British guns. And their guns are usually proofed for specific loads, our guns, as we don't have a Royal Proof House system, are designed and built for hard usage- that doesn't mean abuse however, or using a 3" shell in a 2 & 5/8" chambered gun. Just common sense care.
If it were my $, which is isn't- I'd check the For Sale section on our PGCA Forum, or post a WTB ad there, and by-pass the dealer. Unless he has a gun he really wants to move, he'll have his profit and overhead factored into his asking price. As far as gun shows, that's a "whole 'nother ball game, IMO" In our area the gun shows are usually the same folks at the same tables with the same over-priced guns- very few "pearls" to be found in those oysters--:bigbye:
Mike Jones
12-06-2010, 01:56 AM
Thank you all for the good suggestions. Where is the for sale section mentioned above? I can't seem to locate it.
Dave Suponski
12-06-2010, 06:52 AM
You need to be a PGCA member to view it. An added bonus for the price of a membership.
Bill Murphy
12-06-2010, 10:51 AM
The gun in question is just another common Birmingham box lock, shined up to look good from ten feet away. There is no way to tell how hard it was ridden for the many years before it was buffed up for sale. It was not worked on by someone who knows what he is doing, proven by the screws which are not indexed. The buttstock has been redone and the forend was left behind, can't imagine why. The erratic pricing from this dealer is well shown by the three thousand dollar refinished Fox Sterlingworth, a $600 gun at best. Better choices from this dealer would be the Holland and Holland Royal 28 gauge or the David McKay Brown over under, or maybe a fly fishing lesson from the lovely Michelle. I couldn't help myself.
Richard Flanders
12-07-2010, 09:15 AM
Righto Harry. That Holland is stunning. I like the Scottish 12ga hammer gun also.... but not for that price.
Jack Cronkhite
12-07-2010, 01:12 PM
What really caught my eye with the Holland & Holland was the tag. For the "assistance" I would need, the asking would have to be to a kind banker, not the gun room staff.
Cheers,
Jack
Francis Morin
12-07-2010, 01:21 PM
What really caught my eye with the Holland & Holland was the tag. For the "assistance" I would need, the asking would have to be to a kind banker, not the gun room staff.
Cheers,
Jack
I always recall my late Grandfather's words of wisdom about bankers- went about like this-- "A banker will always loan you his umbrella without charge on any sunny day of the week"-- He did business with Cin. Bank and Trust- but- that was back in the golden era of the rule of 3-6-3 for bankers: Pay your depositors 3%, charge your borrowers 6%, and be at the Country Club every Thursday at 3 o'clock PM for Tee-time- Fore!!:p
Jim Thynne
01-31-2019, 05:46 PM
Geoffrey Boothroyd wrote that having all of the guns he has seen and written about, his choice would be a Bonehill, an very good solid and reasonably priced gun. If a buyer is a dealer wanting to make a profit on a gun, this is probably not the gun for you, however Boothroyd seems to have been a reasonably educated man when it came to british shotguns, and one would think if the gun is in excellent condition this would be a great gun to own. I do in fact own one, and it is not for sale!!
John Campbell
02-01-2019, 09:04 AM
Bonehill catered to the mid-to-low end of the gun market. His were some of the first English guns to rely heavily on machine manufacture of the basic bits. But according to Bonehill, "the last stroke of the file" was still handled by a fellow at the bench.
Good guns generally, and a bit higher finished than a comparable grade Parker or Smith. And fear not. A Bonehill box lock is as reliable as any other.
Jim Thynne
02-01-2019, 09:48 AM
The gun I have is a bit different. It is a top lever cocking boxlock with gold outside cocking indicators, engraved and gold inlaid on the frame L for loaded and D for discharged. I wrote Mr. Boothroyd, and he asked for pictures. he had wanted to see this gun as he had heard of this model, but never seen it. I wish we would have had internet at the time, however Mr. Boothroyd had passed prior to my sending the photos. It still has the original but plate and fine damascus barrels.
Mike Jones
02-01-2019, 11:34 AM
Please post some pictures.
Jerry Parise
02-02-2019, 12:05 PM
I have been shooting a C.G. Bonehill SLE built in 1930 for many years now. I can honestly say that the quality of the gun is quite good. In fact I think that it's quality rivals the LC Smith and the Syracuse made LeFever. I have also seen some superb quality Bonehill box lock ejector guns that were the quality equal of the Ansley Fox and the Parker. So, please, do not so lightly dismiss the build quality of any Birmingham built gun. Each gun must be evaluated individually upon it's own merits.
Jerry Harlow
02-06-2019, 10:29 PM
Here is my C.G. Bonehill, 16 gauge with 30" barrels, choked .10 and .22 with 2 1/2 inch chambers. A good bird gun. The quality of the gun is very very good, and weighs 6 pounds 8 ounces.
Mills Morrison
02-06-2019, 10:34 PM
A friend has a Bonehill 8 gauge
Eric Eis
02-07-2019, 12:56 PM
I bought a 20 ga Damascus hammer with 30" inch barreled gun and the seller would love to buy it back but it's not going anywhere, it's a great gun very lively, nothing not to like about the gun.
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