This is a William & Son 12-bore sidelock ejector, built in 2019 and sold to a customer of ours after the London firm closed following COVID and the economic hardship that befell many companies in its aftermath.
It is built very like a traditional live pigeon gun and was originally on sale for a little over £100,000 in 2019. It has a heavy action and sideclips as well as a third bite and is proofed for 70mm cartridges. Weight is 7lbs 6oz and it is stocked for high pheasant shooting.
The customer who bought the gun has been using it regularly in New Zealand for high pheasant shooting and has been looking for another like it so he can use them as apair. Several years of looking at Holland & Holland 'Royal' pigeon guns (William & Son guns are built on Holland & Holland Royal self-opening paent platforms) failed to find a good one, so we were forced to think of another solution.
We decided to build a new gun to exactly match the original. The same barrel maker, the same action filer and the same finisher were recruited and Peter Cusack, who engraved the original, agreed to reprise his work on the new gun.
The original was stocked by Stephan Dupille but he was unavailable due to his high level of work commitments and his large shop, which also requires management. So, we engaged Romain Lepinois to copy teh stock. To do so, we took the original gun to his workshop, along with the barrelled and actioned new one and he used that as a reference point for every shape and angle.
It was important to try and match the walnut of the original gun as closely as possible. That took a morning of trial and error until we settled on the blank you see in these photographs. The new stock looks a different shade in the pictures but when wetted it closely matches the other in colour and will do so even more when finished.
The two guns have now gone back for polishing and preparing for engraving. That process will take two weeks and then it will be heading for the engraver's workshop, along with its companion so that Peter can copy his previous work.
Of course, we cannot put 'William & Son' on the new gun. We will probably do what we normally do when building a bespoke gun for a customer and put his name on it.
What you see here is a totally bespoke best Holland & Holland style gun, built to 'Royal Deluxe' standard, entirely by hand, in England.
We hope it will be finished in time for Christmas.
Published by Vintage Guns Ltd on
