Nice Old Double

[ArtS]

I just bought a nice old double at auction. Never heard of it but it is a Harrison Bros sideplated boxlock. I found 2 of 3 listed but that was it. The others were old listings still on Guns International. All were boxlocks with some simple scroll and plain wood. All dated by the sellers as 1940's to 1970's. The design looks older than that. This one has very good wood, sideplates, ejectors, fine line checkering and pretty full coverage of birds and scroll. The auction listed it as 1915 era and it looks that but the proofs are consistent that it was made in 1974 and in original proof. The only proof anomaly is that the bore diameters are stamped as .729 in both barrels(a little odd) but there is no sign of reproof and the bores are shiny. The gun appears to have received a freshening of the wood and barrel finish at some point and I suspect the bores were polished out or reamed but not enough to put it out of proof. The original proof shows a 12 in diamond bore on both barrels.

The thing that drew me to it was the nice engraving and wood, ejectors, the good stock dimensions and the fact that it is a 12 ga that weighs 6# on the nose. With 26" barrels and .011 and .017 inch chokes, it should be an almost perfect upland gun with 7/8 oz loads.

It amazes me with what is available in English boxlocks. A vintage US double with this wood and quality of engraving would bring many times the price that this gun demanded. It is essentially not collectible, being made by probably a gunsmith finishing Birmingham trade guns, but as a working gun it is hard to imagine other $1000 to 1200 guns that could compete with it. I looked up the street address on the gun and it is shown on the Google Maps as "The Gunsmith House". A really obtuse reference lists the brothers as being in business from 1920 to 1984 and likely related to the people associated with either Cogswell or Hussey.

It needs a good cleaning of the metal and wood followed by a round of skeet to try it out.