Two Clever Cartridge Conversions

feature By: Miles Gilbert | February, 21

The Manton 12-gauge fowler can still fill the bag.

Firearm technology evolved very quickly in the mid-nineteenth-century and went from muzzleloader to pinfire to centerfire in a few decades. Two very interesting examples of that evolution are presented herewith. They began with the Great Exhibition of Works of All Nations held in London in 1851. While the breechloader was first invented by Johannes Samuel Pauly in France in 1812, and had been used in France since the 1830s, it was not until an obscure French gunmaker named Casimir Lefaucheux showed a single-barreled pinfire shotgun with hinged, drop-down barrel at the exhibition that provided inspiration for a new generation of British gunmakers. Lefaucheux’s breechloader utilized cartridges patented by his friend, Monsieur Houllier, in 1846. The new gun was termed a “pinfire” because a pin, set into the base at a right angle, detonated a percussion cap inside the cartridge body.

The Manton fowler and assorted loading implements.

Loading rod stop on the Westley Richards.

The first gun discussed here began as a muzzleloading fowler by premier English gunmaker Joseph Manton. He reigned as undisputed head of the gun trade during the last years of the flintlock and in the early days of the percussion sporting gun. He was born in 1766, the son of a farmer and corn miller in Grantham, Lincolnshire. Brought up in rural isolation with an unsophisticated family, even so, he appears to have been blessed by training under a provincial gunmaker. He then became the venerated patriarch of the early-nineteenth-century gun trade and desired to “be the maker of as good a gun as can be made.” He began in London in 1789, and became gunmaker to the East India Company and eventually as gunmaker-in-ordinary to King George IV.

This Manton fowler has a 14½-inch length of pull; weighs 5 pounds, 13 ounces and displays a lovely browned, 12-gauge twist steel barrel. It is 23¼ inches round, tapering down to three “wedding bands” 5⁄8 inch wide that are joined to 77⁄8 inches of octagon barrel up to the standing breech. The location of an original barrel tenon, from its life as a muzzleloader, is still visible on the bottom flat. The original Manton back action lock utilizes Stanton’s rebounding system and now sports a side hammer suitably angled inward to strike the cartridge firing pin, which is spring-loaded for retraction.

George E. Lewis appears to have retained the original Manton buttstock, lock, trigger mechanism and trigger guard and grafted them onto the cast steel receiver, which could have been obtained from Webley and Scott, who were widely regarded as “gunmakers to the gunmakers.” Lewis himself established his business in Birmingham in 1850, while the percussion ignition system was still very much in use. However, by 1861, various centerfire systems were available, and this gun bears Birmingham proofs for 2½-inch, three-dram black powder cartridges with up to 11⁄8 ounces of shot.

As can be seen in the initial photograph, it is effective on chukar, with a choke constriction midway between Improved Cylinder and Modified; Light Modified, if you will. Cartridges used were RST 2½-inch, Number 5s or WW 28-gauge shells in the 12- to 28-gauge chamber inserts.

“Doll’s head” action.

Clever hammers on the Westley Richards’ shotgun.

The second gun under consideration is a massive 9 pound, 15 ounce Westley Richards shotgun, made in 1874. The 32-inch barrels weigh five pounds, 15 ounces alone and are choked Improved Cylinder and Skeet. At the muzzle is a loading rod “stop” left over from when they were made for a muzzleloader. They are now fit to Westley Richards’ famous top opening, “dolls head” action, patented October 10, 1865, which was an improved version of its predecessor, the 1862 patent, that was made first for the pinfire cartridge.

The bar action locks are unchanged from muzzleloader use and differ only in having elegant hammers that could strike a percussion cap, pinfire pin, or centerfire cartridge. They reside in a wooden stock that could have been for a muzzleloading gun, but has been modified for breech loading with the aptly named “crab knuckle” joint.

Westley Richards celebrated its 200th anniversary in 2012, having been founded by William Westley Richards (1788 to 1865) outside the gun quarter in Birmingham, England, but with a showroom in fashionable London, where the “well-to-do” shopped. This gun was bought by William Spencer & Co. September 19, 1874.

Acknowledgments:

Ron Peterson, of Ron Peterson Antiques in Albuquerque, New Mexico, for access to his Westley Richards pinfire and “muzzleloader converted to centerfire” shotguns.

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Two Clever Cartridge Conversions