Bryan
Wells from Pembrokeshire, UK
This Perrins & Son 12 bore hammer gun with Damascus barrels was purchased in 1960 from Andrew Compton, a Master Baker from Corse in Gloucestershire, sadly now deceased but in his time a well known and much liked game shooting enthusiast with a love for quality guns and whom later developed a penchant for custom made guns by A A Brown & Sons.
The gun was purchased at a cost of twenty five pounds, quite a lot then and I have recently been reminded by my wife that it was ten pounds more than the three piece suite acquired at the same time for a new bungalow in Hallow, Worcestershire.
There again I suspect we will not be buying in the foreseeable future a new detached bungalow for what was then just three thousand one hundred pounds!
Date of the Perrins manufacture is unknown and open to advice but notably the gun is engraved "Perrins & Son" which by including the "& Son" would date it sometime later than 1855. There is no clear indication of a gun makers address or gun number on the rib but proof marks and future expert advice may possibly help with more accurate dating.
The proof marks indicate black powder only and the barrels have recently been measured and certified in proof.
The punch mark - NOT FOR BALL is a fascinating element and addition to the proof marks.
There are many fine features in the manufacture. The hammers and shape of the action block and notably the underneath shaping can all be described as particularly elegant. The fact that the top lever operated lock is almost as tight as the day it was made is certainly a credit to design and materials used. The forend shape has much beauty and forend lock with an effective roller ball action that crisply snaps into place with utmost simplicity, again a credit in design and operation.
As a sporting gun it is very well balanced having also survived without stock alterations and has what appears to be the original one piece butt plate made from a thin section of very hard black wood.
I look forward to comparing the engraved patterns with other Perrins guns in search of similarities that may indicate the same engraver and help with determining the date of manufacture more closely.
I am indeed proud to have owned the gun for approaching fifty years, possibly a third of it's life and still use it on high days and holiday outings.
Career and Hobbies.
Mainly now in the form of efforts to retire after a lifetime of civil engineering and latterly sharing my wife's farming interests breeding sheep and Welsh Black cattle.
The efforts to retire being quite fruitless so far because of the necessity to continue funding shooting and sea fishing interests!
Shooting is generally confined to clays with a concentration on the skeet discipline qualifying for the Welsh International Team as a Veteran in 2008.
"Penback
Sabrina - October 2009"
