American & British 410 Shotguns. Ronald Gabriel

is the true test of success in life,” an unworthy fact of life. However, in the case of rare or unique guns, the intrinsic value is seldom the price negotiated between buyer and seller. Why? Because the human culture surrounding these artifacts of wood and steel has a value of its own, often far greater than the work itself.

      When it comes to valuation, knowledge is the coin of the realm, and, in some measure, this book may help.

       Ronald S. Gabriel Los Angeles, California, August 2003

CHAPTER ONE

      THE GENESIS OF THE 410 GAUGE

      The 410 is not a bore or a gauge but a caliber that measures the internal diameter of the barrel in thousandths of an inch. Gauge or bore is based on the inside diameter of the barrel at 9 inches fromording to London Proof House research the breech. It is calculated from the number of “pure lead spherical balls”—each of which fits the bore—“that makes up one imperial pound in weight [1].” For example, it takes 12 balls for the 12 bore and 20 for the 20 bore. However, in this book, we will always refer to the 410 as either a bore or a gauge.

      The precise origin of the 410-gauge shotgun is unknown. Jack O’Connor believed that the gauge in America was a “direct descendant” of the 44/40 rifle cartridge. It was initially loaded using the standard 44/40 bottleneck case with the shot housed in a paper container. Indeed, at one time the shell was called the 44 XL. This was followed by the 2-inch straight brass case. The brass case was succeeded by the 2-inch paper case. Circumstantial evidence for this recently surfaced in a possible Annie Oakley-pedigreed Harrington & Richardson smoothbore hammer gun marked “410-44 cal” on a 26-inch barrel, made after 1900 and before 1903.

      Based upon review of the British Proof House documents and gunmakers’ records, it would appear that the first documented conventional 410 appeared in the 1870s (Photo 1). According to John Wilkes’ memory of a gun passing through for repairs years earlier, the first Wilkes 410 was manufactured circa 1870s [2]. It was a 2-inch hammer side-by-side back-action shotgun. By the turn of the century, 410s, at least in England, were being made in measurable numbers. They were either of the hammer or hammerless configuration and the important actions included the boxlock and the sidelock. The latter action was usually back-action, rarely bar-action before World War II.

      By 1925, the 410 gauge dotted the British Empire. This far-flung colonial leviathan, the likes of which was never seen before and will never be seen again, included Africa, Asia, Middle East, Australia, North America, the Caribbean, etc. Administering these vast territories required a modestly sized but very efficient British civil and military population. Many British subjects took with them a sporting gun and, for small camp and roadside game, a 410 was often included.

      This was usually an inexpensive hammer back-action side-lock or Anson & Deeley (A&D) boxlock and, rarely, a “Best” quality boxlock or bar-action sidelock. Many such guns were sold through Army-Navy Cooperative Stores that were developed by overseas’ officers in such then God-forsaken places as Khartoum, Bombay, Calcutta, and Fort Said. Conversely, Boothroyd noted in the 1920s that the United Kingdom imported a number of “Tukaway” double-barrel 410 pistol smoothbores made in Belgium, with “Tukaway” stamped on the barrel [3].

      The 410 was generally a modestly priced boxlock, but it was produced to a high quality by such great firms as Holland &Holland, Watson, Greener, Churchill, Westley Richards, John Wilkes, William Evans, Webley & Scott, Cogswell & Harrison, and W.J. Jeffery, often for their export trade. Many manufacturers often had 410s made by small artisans and then “shot and regulated” them and placed their own name on the guns. Smaller firms, such as the Watson and Wilkes firms, were distinguished in that many components of their boxlock 410s were made in their own factory, with the frequent exception of the action. The action, usually an A&D boxlock, was supplied by such firms as Webley & Scott, Midlands, Carr & Son, A.A. Brown & Sons, and John Harper.

      According to Richard Moore, lately of Greenfield, Ltd., Salisbury, England, Mr. Joseph Asbury (“JA” on the barrel flats before the lug), Midland Gun Company and Webley & Scott forged and machined the actions of a majority of all boxlocks made for the trade [4]. Both Moore and Tate [5] report that some of Watson Bros. A&D actions were made by George and Sidney Holloway; W.J. Jeffrey’s by Webley Scott or John Saunders, and, for best quality, D. Leonard & Sons; and Holland & Holland’s Northwood boxlocks after World War II by a Vic Simmons-led consortium. Watson, Jeffery, and Holland & Holland, all London firms, relied upon Birmingham artisans for the heart of their boxlock smoothbores.

      There is some evidence in the British Proof Houses that a single firm, the Midland Gun Company, made a good majority of all the back-action 410s for a substantial period of time before and after the turn of the century, and sold them to other gunmakers for their regulating, precise fitting, and naming [6].

      By 1910, Greener, in discussing the small bore 24- and 32-gauge guns, was able to say, “they are mostly exported to the Brazilian and Argentine markets” and, together with the 410 bore, are principally used by naturalists or used for such weapons as a “walking stick gun” [7].

      Greener argued that the small-bore shotgun is not a toy and is, in the hands of a good shot, an efficient weapon. He discusses those who championed the 28 bore in the 1879 London Field Trials. He also lists game shooting testimonials for the 28 bore but none for the 410. Apart from the brief comments noted above, the 410 goes unnoticed in the 9th and last edition of Greener’s compendium [7].

      Indeed, it may have been Greener’s comment that “the 28 bore is the smallest caliber of any practical use as a game gun” that led to the general disapproval suffered by the 410 gauge over the next 50-odd years [8]. Greener did say that the small bore should be used by “either a first-rate shot or by a boy beginning to practice.” Attesting to the lowly state of the 410 gauge in bygone times was the phrase “410s as vermin destroyers.”

      Photo 1: London Proof House records.

       Paul Goodwin photo

      Ultimately, the extremes of society generated the interest in the 410 bore: the gamekeeper and poacher for predator control and “fast” food and the aristocrat and gentleman landowner for collecting birds and ground game for taxidermy and self-protection.

      In America, the 410’s traditional use as a rat and wildcat killer, buttressed by its otherwise presumed impracticality, was condescendingly celebrated by a generation of American shotgun writers including Elmer Keith, Jack O’Connor, and Charles Askins. These writers, all big-bore shotgun enthusiasts, dealt with the wide-open spaces of the American West with long-range upland game and waterfowl shooting of big birds including pheasant, chukar, grouse, partridge, duck, and goose.

       America

      Colt Firearms Company made a 410 smoothbore revolver for export to Great Britain and Europe as early as 1877, according to London Proof House research [6].1 In America, the introduction of the 410 gauge during and just after the Great War was in the form of the inexpensive and mass-produced single-barrel shotgun. For example, the Iver Johnson Company introduced the 410-gauge