30 MB - Antique & Modern Firearms

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MODERN SHOT GUNS.
EARLY HAMMERLESS GUNS.
A hammerless gun on the drop-down principle,
the lock mechanism
simitar to the Pruslan Needle-gun, has been in use m Germany for many
vears Mr. Daw introduced a hammerless central-fire gun about 1862,
but it did not attain the popularity of his central-fire hammer gun, and i
prac tically abandoned. In 1866 a patent was taken out for a hammerless
gun in which the lock mechanism was attached to the trigger-plate, and
the cocking effected by the under action lever.
The Murcott Hammerless Gun.
Mr. T. Murcott's hammerless gun, patented in 1871, is typical of the
first hammerless and the present cheap hammerless guns.
The one drawback to this gun is the position of the lever. An under
lever is neither so handy, so pleasant, nor so quick as a top lever. In
the original Murcott the lever had to travel a long distance and required
considerable force faults which in a modern gun are remedied to a very
great extent. The Gibbs and Pitt is a modification of the Murcott plan ;
Woodward's Automatic, Reeves', Lang's, and several others, are variously
improved forms of the original idea, and the Murcott Gun being now
manufactured cheaply, has become very popular with gun-dealers, and in one
of its many forms may be found in almost every gun-shop. The price
for a
sound gun on this principle will average ^20 some ; cheap modifications