William Powell Gunmakers back when they were in Birmingham
One from the archives from our Birmingham days.
BSA Guns - Made In Britain
In a little over a hundred years BSA has grown from a small union of gunsmiths to become one of Britain's important industrial groups. The story is not entirely one of steady progress and expansion; there is drama and excitement too. And because BSA has served its country more directly than most private concerns, its story is also part of Britain's history.
Gun Making: Lock, Stock, & Barrel (1956) | British Pathé
This remarkable footage from 1956 details the process of how sporting guns are hand made from the stock to the barrel.
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(FILM ID:113.15)
London.
Guns are tailor made for customers at a West End gunsmith. Various shots of a customer testing a gun for size and the gunsmith altering the angle of the stock in relation to the barrel. The gunsmith uses an adjustable gun issued only for fitting customers.
Various shots of the gunsmith measuring and altering the gun. We then see men in the workshop tailor making a gun. Various shots of a craftsman at work. His name is Arthur Gwynn. We see how specialised gun making is as narrator explains how long it takes. Ebenezer Hands - 68 years old - works on another gun. Several different men are seen at work on the guns. Charlie Ganderton tests the ejectors and trigger pressure.
The gunsmith feels that the human eye is more accurate than a machine. Narrator states: sporting guns will last a lifetime if looked after... symbols of the best in British craftsmanship...
BRITISH PATHÉ'S STORY
Before television, people came to movie theatres to watch the news. British Pathé was at the forefront of cinematic journalism, blending information with entertainment to popular effect. Over the course of a century, it documented everything from major armed conflicts and seismic political crises to the curious hobbies and eccentric lives of ordinary people. If it happened, British Pathé filmed it.
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Gavin Gardiner’s Top Guns | John Wilkes fine Ken Hunt engraved 12 bore Sidelock Ejector Gun
Virtually unused, this ‘glorious’ gun was commissioned in 1987 and took five years to complete given the demands on master engraver Ken Hunt’s time. With a 27-inch chopper-lump barrels and 2 ¾ chambers this gun retains all of it's original finish. The maker’s name is signed in gold on the rib, the frame, locks and top lever are carved with bold foliate scrollwork surrounding highly detailed game scene engraving, the left lock with pheasants in flight, the right lock with a covey of grouse and the action base with a duck, signed by the engraver “K. C. Hunt 90”. Holland & Holland-type self-opening action, gold lined cocking indicators and rolled edge trigger guard, 15 1/2-inch highly figured stock, 6lb. 9oz., nitro proof, in its maker’s brassbound leather case with maker’s accessories and canvas outer cover.
Estimate £20,000- 25,000
Lot 167 Sotheby’s 1st May 2019
Famous British Gun Makers | 19th & 20th C.
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The sport of shooting birds on the wing developed in Europe in the 1600's, after the invention (in France) of the flintlock action. Muzzle loading flintlock fowling pieces developed slowly in various parts of Europe, culminating with the superb double-barreled shotguns of Joseph Manton, who set up his shop in London in 1793. Manton's guns were light, trim, well balanced, fast handling, and impeccably fit and finished. Stocks were slender and of fine English walnut with a hand rubbed oil finish. The actions were filed in graceful curves, and made as light as possible; all excess metal was removed. They were tastefully engraved in fine scroll patterns. The overall effect was of restraint, elegance, and perfection. These guns set the tone for, and established the superiority of, British shotguns for wing shooting that has lasted to this day. The guns of Joseph Manton epitomized the emerging concept of the best gun.
Alexander Forsyth, a Scot, patented the percussion lock in 1807. Percussion systems soon replaced the flintlock ignition system. Technical development continued, and by the mid-eighteen hundreds the percussion double had reached its zenith, using the copper percussion cap still used today by most muzzle loading guns.
The breechloader was perfected in the 1860's, and the British game gun as we know it today developed from that point. The early breach loading external hammer guns (often sporting features like underhammers and side levers) rapidly evolved into the fully developed sidelock hammer guns of the late 1800's, with low profile rebounding hammers, underbolts to lock the gun closed, and top lever opening, all British innovations. Fully developed hammer guns were produced until the First World War, and a few are still being made today.
Hammer guns began to be replaced by new hammerless (actually internal hammer) designs from the leading British firms in the last 20 years of the 19th Century. British gun makers used the movement of the barrels to cock the hammers on opening, and developed safety intercepting sears, automatic ejectors, assisted opening, and single selective triggers. The barrels were built on the chopper-lump system, the most difficult and expensive method of attaching two barrels. This method of barrel construction, however, allows the narrowest and lightest possible gun.
British gunmakers developed the hammerless boxlock and sidelock actions still used in almost all double guns to this day. World famous London gun makers like Boss, Holland & Holland and Purdey brought the modern hammerless side-by-side double gun to perfection. Other London makers like E. J. Churchill, John Rigby, James Woodward & Sons, Charles Boswell, William Evans, Atkins Grant & Lang, and John Wilkes also turned out superb best guns. Most of these firms are still in business today. These British gun makers set the standards for best guns; to this day a London best is treasured as the epitome of the gun makers' art. A new London best is just about the most expensive shotgun in the world, and their used prices are also very high.
Bangford - London Town - At The Gunmakers
Filmed at The Gunmakers Arms in Birmingham on 16/02/2018.
The Two Towers Brewery, Birmingham
The Two Towers Brewery was established in Birmingham in 2009. The name is a reference to JRR Tolkien who spent his childhood in the city, and to the landmarks which he knew as a child.
The two towers of Birmingham are Perrotts Folly and the Edgbaston waterworks tower.
This very short film shows the brewery in the Mott Street location before production is moved to the Gunmakers Arms. Please visit thew brewery to learn more about the process and to taste the results.
Filmed by Andrew Pilkington. produced by - please subscribe for more heritage and history. Interact with us on Twitter:
Song - A Little Faith Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
Inside Watson Brothers Gun and Rifle Manufacturers Part 2
It has been the general consensus of opinion throughout the gun trade that the development of the best London gun could be taken no further, and that every gunmaker's main task was to emulate the great guns built between the wars as best as possible.
There were rules which could not be broken. The self-opening gun is more difficult to close. The gun should be made on a square sided action of substantial size and filed up with beads. Over-unders have to be built on a larger square frame action and consequently end up weighing at least 1lb more than a side-by-side. As for the working of these guns, they need many functioning parts. If any should fail, the gun will stop working.
It must have come as quite a shock to the other gun houses when Michael Louca first started making claims about an over-under at side-by-side gun weight, with easily maintainable, reliable ejector work. On a very sleek, round body action that feels so slender to hold, that most people did not believe it.
Starting with a blank piece of paper, Louca spent two years re-designing, the carving the over-under into what must be the unique gun on the market today.
Watson Bros. are well known for their lightweight small bore guns, so it was without coincidence that Louca decided on this name for his future.
The whole essence of his dream was now beginning to come alive, he had the shape of his over-under (his distinctive coffin shaped round body) completed. Now all that was left was to get the Louca ejector system finished. This proved to be no easy task. After many many months of long hours, he felt that it was eluding him, bearing in mind the goals which had to be achieved, an ejector system which will ejector and re-cock simply with as few moving parts as possible.
Eventually the break through started to happen and Watson Bros. now have one of the simplest most reliable system of all developed and built in a London workshop.
London Gun Stock Finish
...when only the best will do
Napier London Gunstock Finish Kit has been developed for use on all wooden gunstocks and will achieve an excellent finish with outstanding protection.
Our master gunmaker Frank Whyman uses this secret formula every day, as have hundreds of London gunmakers before him. Now you too can obtain a truly professional finish by using the products contained in this kit.
This video has been produced with the help of Andy Duncan, Napier's master Stock Maker.
Beorma dance Pershore Stick at the Gunmakers Arms 2017
Beorma Border Morris dance the Pershore Stick Dance at the Gunmakers Arms, Birmingham on 12th November 2017.
After an exhausting tour of the canal network below Spaghetti Junction entertaining multitudes on the way, the adrenaline-fueled dancers proceed to wreck the interior decor of this fine drinking establishment.
Video by kind courtesy of the Gunmakers Arms staff.
Gavin Gardiner’s Top Guns | Watson Bros. Pair of 28-Bore Exhibition Quality Sidelock Ejector Guns
The guns remain unused and are engraved with the Royal residences of England and Scotland. Engraved by Keith Thomas, the highly detailed finish includes many details such as the English roses and Scottish thistles that are engraved on the fences and top-levers of each gun. Game scenes complete the picture, and the guns have 28-inch barrels and 15 1/4-inch highly figured stocks.
Estimate £55,000-£70,000
Lot 326 12th December auction at Sotheby’s.
rachel mayfield - take me to god - gunmakers arms - 12/10/17
show me your birmingham
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Antique Built in 1950, BSA Birmingham .22RF Target Rifle Made in England Military Gun
12 yrs old young shooter Vanessa and I test shoot this Antique made in 1950 Birmingham U.K. Single shoot lever action. Very heavy wood and such a beauty. BSA Birmingham small arms Co. U.K. Martini international. This gun is very similar to the gun using in the Movie of ZULU
Elderkin & Son (Gunmakers) Ltd had some very Rare Guns at The British Shooting Show
Purveyors of top quality sporting and competition shotguns we have on average over 300 guns in stock. These can be viewed in our 4 extensive showrooms in Spalding, Lincolnshire, including a comprehensive range of outdoor clothing and accessories.
Pacifists making guns: the Galtons of Birmingham and Britain's industrial revolution
Professor Priya Satia (Stanford) delivered the Centre for Modern and Contemporary History Annual Lecture 2018 at the University of Birmingham.
The biggest gun-making firm in 18th century Britain was owned by a Quaker family, the Galtons of Birmingham. They were major suppliers of guns to the slave trade in West Africa, the East India Company, settlers and trading companies in North America, and the British government, which was at war almost constantly from 1688 to 1815. But a core principle of the Quaker faith is belief in the un-Christian nature of war; Quakers do not participate in war or war training. From the seventeenth century, they were a persecuted minority because they refused to swear loyalty to the king or to arm themselves in the defence of his realm. So how do we explain the Galtons? -and other Quakers’ quiet tolerance of their business for nearly a century? For nearly a century, their livelihood attracted no critical notice in the Quaker community. Then, suddenly, in 1795, the Religious Society of Friends threatened to disown Samuel Galton Junior unless he left the arms trade. What changed? Why did the Galtons’ gun-manufacturing suddenly become a scandal? Had guns changed? Had Quakerism changed? And what was the result? Was Galton disowned? These are the questions Prof. Satia’s talk will pose and answer. And the answers reveal how difficult it was in eighteenth-century British industrial society to extricate oneself entirely from participating in warfare, regardless of principles. War was integral to the Industrial Revolution.
Priya Satia is a professor of British History at Stanford University. She is author of Spies of Arabia: The Great War and the Cultural Foundations of Britain’s Covert Empire in the Middle East published by Oxford University Press and her writing appeared in the TLS, Slate, the Financial Times, Washington Post, and Time Magazine, among others. She received an MSc in Development Studies (Economics) at the London School of Economics and a PhD in History at the University of California, Berkeley.
Open Hourse Double Barrel Shot Gun Birmingham Made
Birmingham Proof House Tour (Part 1) by RACKNLOAD
Like the channel? Help support it here- Racknload takes a fascinating behind the scenes look around Birmingham Proof House and the British Proof Laboratory. Excuse my waffle at the start but I need to intro the video and talk about this amazing place!
For more info contact Birmingham Proof House-
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5 Incredible Gunmakers You Don't Know About
Here are 5 awesome gunmakers you didn’t know existed!
Number 1 is A. A. Brown of England, beautifully made English Sidelock as well as a Custom Beretta option that is extremely attainable!
Number 2 is Johann Fanzoj from Austria. best quality Autrian shotguns and rifles, their series of single shots are the thing of dreams!
Number 3 is Armi Cortesi - some really unusual stuff, all of which is rather yummy -
Number 4 is Peter Hofer - a gunmaker with the mind of an artist and innovator. If you dont fall in love with at least one of his guns - you dont like guns!
Number 5 is Piotti Guns, the makers of fine and beautiful curiosities in guns.
We chucked a wildcard in there, purely because you should have heard of them -
Enjoy!
To support our channel please visit tgsoutdoors.co.uk and check out our Merch
Lot 4851 - S/S Shotgun Hammer W&C Scott & Son - Birmingham, 10 bore, #42751, § D
From the upcoming Silent Summer Auction, finishing on July 8th at 15:00:
Lot 4851 - S/S Shotgun Hammer W&C Scott & Son - Birmingham, 10 bore, #42751, § D
80 cm chopper lump-barrels with Belgian proofmarks, flat engine-turned rib, extractor, action with traces of colours, Scott-type square crossbolt,engraved with fine English scroll surrounded by naive game-scenes of a brown bear on the left and a bull moose on the right, non-rebounding back-action hammer-locks, engraved with wild boar and wolf on the lockplates, a chamois on trigger guard, double triggers with articulated front blade, beautifully grained walnut stock with pistol-grip, Silver's rubber recoil pad 38 cm, sling swivels, fore-end with Anson push-rod, 5 kg, year of manufacture 1887, in a modern oak case with combination locks, with 56 cm long exchangeable barrels for slugs, with a high brass bead, Belgian proof and maker's mark V. Lemal, silver stock oval engraved with a monogram in old Russian script NA II, additional later added silver ornament on butt with Cyrillic letters MO surrounded by scrollwork,year of manufacture 1887, except the replaced barrels condition III. Made presumably as a double rifle in .577 Black Powder Express or as a slug gun for European big game, unfortunately neither the original barrels nor the records of the makers have survived. Nicholas II (1868 - 1918) was crowned as Czar in 1896 to become the last Emperor of Russia.
Proofing The Guns: London Proof House & Worshipful Company of Gunmakers
Unlike in the United States, Britain requires that every single firearm imported, produced, or modified on the isle to be proofed. This means that at least two high-pressure charges be fired through that firearm before it can be allowed for public sale or usage. Proofing has been an official regulation since the 1600s when numerous Gunmakers put their heads together and asked that a standard be set for their industry. The problem they were trying to solve was that there were too many inconsistencies within firearms of the period and customers were suffering from this through improperly made guns. Today Britain follows the CIP standards set forth by a number of European countries. In the United States we have SAAMI which although is very similar, it isn't government sanctioned as CIP is.
One of the fascinating things about the Proof House is that the work they do really hasn't changed since 1637. Taking in a firearm or barrel at a time, proofing it, and sending it back out has been the business's bread and butter for over 300 years of existence.
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