Pleasingly for him, every time another gunmaker used it, Purdey got paid a royalty. As the nineteenth century drew to a close, London firms increasingly eschewed the third bite, while Birmingham gunmakers, Like Webley, Scott and Greener continued to market the strength advantages of guns featuring one of the many available patterns.Ĭould there be another contributing factor? Purdey had patented the double bolt in 1863 and seen it serve on a huge variety of styles of gun and rifle.
In this respect, the gun is a precursor to later Grant side-lever side-locks, which are bolted in the same manner. Rather than adopting the Hodges action for this gun, Grant has used a simple arrangement of a side-lever operating a Purdey double bolt. Interestingly, the barrels actually measure 30 1/4”. As for other detail, it just records ‘snap’, meaning a snap action gun, rather than a manually closed lever, like the Jones. 5254, all we are told is that it was No.2 of a pair made for ‘D.Todd esq.’as a 30” 16-bore. The Grant records are, in places, rather brief in what they record. The second gun I have selected to examine was built in 1882. It was the natural successor to the 1866 patent guns he built with Jones screw-grip actions, again usually with back locks, which were non-rebounding in early guns.
From the photos you can see the lateral projections on the rear lump and its backward extension.Ī game gun in style and characteristics, this was the Grant gun that solidified his name through the 1870s as a top gunmaker. Barrels are damascus with a swamped rib and the lever runs down the right hand lock plate.
#Stephen grant shotgun sidelever serial number
It is serial number 5154 and it has back locks, rebounding hammers and scroll engraving. The first gun is a back action side-lever, very much in the classic Grant & Hodges style. The attention to style and detail was clearly ingrained and if you can show me a Grant hammer gun that suffers in any way by comparison with a Boss, I’ll buy you a pint. It is widely boasted that Boss styled his business as ‘Makers of Best Guns Only’ and Grant held the reigns there for ten years. These guns are usually made with back-locks, rebounding hammers and fine scroll engraving. Universally known as the ‘Grant & Hodges Patent’ this is a triple-bite action recognisable by the twin lateral projections on the rear lump and the cut-out in the breech face, into which the lump extends. 251) sealed in 1871 and devised by Edwin Charles Hodges. Most people are familiar with what one would consider the classic Grant side-lever. I thought it would be interesting to compare two Grant side-lever guns and see how the model and the style developed. Today many of his guns still appear at auction, in showrooms and in the field. However, for many, the classic Grant is a graceful hammer gun with damascus barrels and a side-lever.īack in the days of the founder, a best Stephen Grant gun would cost you around £37. He did not stop with hammer guns either, Grant continued his side-lever style into the hammerless era, both with side-locks and trigger plate guns. Grant did not make the only side-lever guns of the period, many firms did. If the round action makes one think of Dickson, the Beesley self-opener of Purdey and the Gibbs falling block of Alex Henry, then the side-lever hammer gun is a style that conjures the name of Stephen Grant in the minds of most enthusiasts. Though Grant built all manner of guns and rifles, like many Victorian gun-makers, he developed a particular style that set him apart from his contemporaries and became instantly recognisable as his work. I have long admired the quality of the guns Stephen Grant turned out between 18, the years in which the founder of the firm traded from 67A St James’s Street, first styled as ‘Stephen Grant’, then, from 1889, as ‘Stephen Grant & Sons’. After succeeding Boss, as managing partner, seven years later, he then co-ran the company until leaving to start his own business, in 1867. In 1843 he went to London to work for Charles Lancaster, then to Thomas Boss, in 1850.
Stephen Grant was an Irishman and served his apprenticeship with William Kavanagh of Dublin.