Posted on 05/20/2011 10:05:29 AM PDT by LibWhacker
Love waterfowl hunting with classic side-by-sides but sometimes really wish you had that third shot? Shoulda been at this auction, where a one-of-a-kind triple-barreled Dickson side-by-side-by-side shotgun just sold at auction for a cool $66,000.
From this story in the Scotsman:
A unique triple-barrelled shotgun made for a Scots aristocrat has been sold at auction for £43,000. The shotgun - dubbed the "Holy Grail" - was made in April 1891 for John Adrian Louis Hope, 1st Marquess of Linlithgow and the seventh Earl of Hopetoun. The three-barrelled ejector, 16-bore gun, with three triggers, was designed by renowned Edinburgh gun makers John Dickson & Son and is the only one of its kind. Its origins were identified after the gun was taken to a valuing event at Hopetoun House, South Queensferry, and it has now been sold at Holt's auction in London, to a private collector, after fierce bidding from around the world.
Holt's founder, Nicholas Holt, said: "This is completely unique - the holy grail for any shotgun collector. "The gun maker, which still exists in Edinburgh, looked back in their records and found this was the only single 16-bore, round action side by side by side ejector ever made. The mechanism was too complex to make more, but it still works fantastically well today and is capable of shooting three gamebirds with its three barrels."
Would that really work or just a gunsmith bored one day?
I found the image under: “unusual looking guns”, unfortunately, there was no info attached. GRRR!
Just imagine what Dick Cheney could do with that sucker!
It was the fastest pointer I ever fired and was good for any bird if close enough.
If you had a long reach for ducks and geese flying high...it couldn't reach 'em.
But for hunting the cornfields for pheasant or the marches and canals for ducks....look out. Perfect balance, perfect throw.
I sure miss that gun.
archy or Joe, can you help?
Very Rare and Unusual Sixteen-Shot Brass-Barreled Ring-Trigger Percussion Pepperbox Pistol by M. Cerwenka, c. 1860 3 1/4-inch brass barrels, farmed of a single piece of brass, each barrel with a slight taper (an arrangement or orientation pointing them towards a fixed point some distance from the shooter), inscribed on one barrel M. CERWENKA, each engraved at breech with numbers surrounded by scroll-work, floral engraved muzzles, the barrels mounted with a loading-rod, iron-breech with tang engraved with a hunter and his game, walnut grip set with brass plates, ring-trigger.
If I owned such a piece and had ammunition for it, I would not be able to restrain myself. I would have to fire it! So nice!
Thank you
BTW, I've read that shells which mix shot sizes don't work very well, because while the smaller shot fill in the gaps of the larger shot, the higher drag-to-mass ratio means they separate out during flight. I wonder what experiments have been done with using a mixture of denser small shot with less-dense large shot? Since lead is cheaper and less dense than other materials, I would think mixing large lead shot with smaller tungsten or bismouth shot would be cheaper than filling the entire shell with the smaller more expensive shot.
I’ve never heard of such experiments, although with the new Taurus Judge pistol, some personal defense ammo is mixing sizes (such as the Winchester PDX).
Large lead shot is now only used for defense, deer (buckshot still is popular is some places) and in rare cases turkey.
Small shot does slow down considerably faster than even minimally larger shot. The range I shoot at limits shot to no larger than 7.5, because 6 (not much bigger) can reach the access road.
The tiny #12 shot in .22 shot capsules will only travel about 100 feet.
Pretty much all of us are beyond help. I'm familiar with some of the flintlock muzzleloading *volley gun* predecessors such as the *duckfoot* pistols, and more recent iterations such as the Mossberg Brownie and the C.O.P., but that particular percussion cap critter has previously escaped my attention.
It's sort of reminescent of the Hillberg Liberator designed for Winchester, and the Colt Defender, so far as handheld weapons go, but also seems to be kin to some of the cartridge-loaded *Spider* and *Durbin Cannon* Claymore Guns used during the Rhodesian counterinsurgency.
That is some nice pieces there! Many thanks!
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