Mortimore & Son 10 Bore

[J.B. Books]

I wasn't looking for another gun but last week I ran across a nice side by side 10 gauge for sale by a maker I was not familiar with, Mortimore & Son in Edinborough Scotland. The gun appealed to me for several reasons, original 28" fluid steel barrels, proofed for 3 1/2 10 gauge shells, English grip, modern dimensions but a tad long for me, 8 1/2 pounds, tight and overall good condition. I put the gun on hold until I could learn more. I was able to find that Mortimore & Son started out in London and was one of London's oldest gun makers before moving to Scotland. They merged with John Dickson in 1938. I put a few pictures I took at the store on a Facebook page and asked for general information about the maker. I was quite surprised and very pleased to get the following reply from a Mr. Peter Croft across the pond, it's more than I could ask for, his reply is below.

This gun was made for a Mr F.W.Smith and sold on the 1st August 1929. It had 28" steel barrels with 3-1/4" chambers choked Full & Full. It weighed 8lbs 9oz and it was stipulated in the original order that there was to be no checkering on stock or forend. The original stock dimensions were: Length to centre 14 5/8". Drop at comb 1-1/8" Drop at heel 2-1/8". In the intervening years the chambers were lengthened and the gun proofed for 3-1/2"(89mm) cartridges. The stock and forend were also checkered at some time.

How do I know all this? I used to own this gun and the info above came from Dickson's when they were still in the Frederick Street shop. Sam Wilcox looked it up for me and I've just read all that info off Gary MacPherson's business card that I wrote everything down on.
I had the Silvers pattern rubber recoil pad fitted by former Churchill Gunmakers stocker Jeff Tyrrell who lived a couple of doors from my Mum in Sutton Coldfield.

I often speculated on why the gun had been ordered with that specification. Across the Firth of Forth there are large numbers of greylag and pink foot geese in Fife and there also numbers to be found east of Edinburgh. Both these areas have rich arable farming and the geese flight into the fields to feed. It's my belief that the gun was ordered with 28" barrels to make it handier to use when hiding in a ditch or hedge alongside the fields. Omitting the checkering would, no doubt, have made the gun easier to clean because the rich soil can soon clog up checkering. The choice of a 3-1/4" 10ga would give quite an improvement on 12 magnum performance. Whilst not as powerful as an 8ga, with it's 28" barrels it would have been a lot handier and with its 1-3/4oz shot load it wouldn't have been far behind the bigger gun in performance.

Rob Foster remarked that the gun would "kick like a mule". Well it wasn't that bad although with Winchester XX 2-1/4oz loads recoil was a bit brisk. I shot a number of geese with those big Winchesters and didn't find the recoil excessive. It shot best with the 3-1/4" load of 1-3/4oz. I would load that in a Winchester or Federal case trimmed to 3-1/4", with a Remington SP10 wad and Blue Dot powder. Rolled turnover closure. These proved very effective and I once shot a carrion crow at 85yards with that load (measured 85 not guesstimated).

I don't know what else to tell you about the gun but if you care to message me I can give you a phone number you can call me on if you want any further info.