Heroes Of The Hammerless Era

Diggory fills us in on a time when the hammerless side-by-side ruled the roost, from Anson & Deeley’s game-changing boxlock to Mr Lancaster’s distinctively phallic-shaped creation

- Diggory Hadoke

Gunmakers had a relatively small number of improvements to make regarding the efficiency of mechanical operation during the last quarter of the 19th and first quarter of the 20th centuries. If we are to broadly chop the phases of predominance of certain types of sporting gun into chunks, this period could best be described as the Era of the Hammerless Side-by Side.

The hammerless heyday

Anson & Deeley kicked it off in a major way with their 1875 boxlock. It may not have been the first hammerless gun, but it certainly was a game-changer, having been in continuous production ever since at the firm that started it (Westley Richards) and used by every major – and most minor – gunmakers in the world.

Half a century later, in 1925, a perusal of the sporting estates of Britain would have shown sportsmen almost universally wielding hammerless side-by-side shotguns.

The over-and-under style had certainly been introduced successfully, with the Boss, Edwinson Green and Woodward patents all filed before World War I. Die-hards and older men could still be found using the odd hammer gun, but over-and-under guns were something of a novelty at this time and hammer guns were considered distinctly old-fashioned. It seemed the settled style for most sport was either a box lock or a side lock of the type with which readers will be very familiar.

The quest for perfection

While Purdey and W.M. Scott kept up their patent privileges on the double underbolt and associated spindle respectively, other makers used a variety of alternatives in order to avoid paying royalties. However, lock-up of snap-action guns was, during the period, fairly settled.