Heritage Guns Update 2nd April, 2026
We are now just 3 weeks away from this year’s Southern S/S Championship and Exhibition at Deep River Sporting Clays, Sanford, NC 23rd-26th April and my preparations are coming together nicely. Flights booked, hotel reservations confirmed and, most importantly, all the new stock guns fettled, cased and looking beautiful!
It has certainly been a very full-on 6 weeks: relining 5 guncases, gathering stand materials and a million other small but significant jobs. The final export licence dropped into my inbox last week, thank goodness, and the new, shiny open import licence for any returning items has been issued in the nick of time.
Other than walking the dogs and a zip round the garden with the mower, I haven’t seen the outside world much but my experience has been radical swings from bitterly cold to unseasonably warm but the dogs don’t seem to mind! Tilly the matriarch is definitely becoming more cranky and is quite likely to wander off in search of some delectable morsel of deer poo. She really couldn’t give a fig for any gamebirds she stumbles upon and I think her working days are truly over. Kiwi, the labrador with very little brain, bumbles along happily but in contrast really comes alive when she encounters scent and several courting pheasant have nearly lost their tail feathers, or worse, for not paying attention to their surroundings! Little Pips, aka the ‘Terrorist’, is very engaged in hunting down anything that moves but has to stay on the lead as she knows no boundaries.
So to the guns that will be on show at the Southern…
New stock items:
1887 Holland & Holland 1st type 16b Royal, 28” x 2 ¾” replacement chopperlump barrels; superb, highly figured replacement stock and forend; relined leather and brass case.
And in its case:
1892 Holland & Holland 2nd Type 12b Royal, 29“ x 2 ¾“, Teague thin-wall chokes x 4, well figured replacement stock, relined Oak & Leather case.
And in its case:
1888 Stephen Grant & Sons 12b Sidelever SLE, 30” x 2 ½“ nitro damascus barrels, original highly figured stock, relined oak & leather case.
And in its case:
1870’s J Blanch & Son 12b Thumblever Hammergun, 29” x 2 ¾” nitro damascus barrels, highly figured original stock, relined canvas and leather trim case.
And in its case:
1883 J Blanch & Son 12b Sidelever Hammergun, 28” x 2 ½” nitro damascus barrels, highly figured stock and forend, relined leather and brass case.
And in its case:
Then we have the remaining guns that I exported to Bob Nay in February:
A very nice 1906 boxlock ejector by J Blanch & Son: 12b x 29” x 70mm x SK/Mod with a very nicely figured 14 7/8” stock.
..and in its leather case.
1891 12b toplever SLE by Stephen Grant & Sons: 30” x 2 ¾” nitro sleeved barrels, lots of original hardening colour on locks and action, 14 ¾” highly figured original wood including a 1” leather covered recoil pad and presented in a relined oak & leather case.
1879 John Dickson & Son 12b hammergun, 30” x 2 ½” nitro damascus barrels, a fabulous original stock, oak lined hammergun case.
And in its case:
1898 James MacNaughton12b Roundaction Ejector, 28” x 2 ½” rebarrelled by Dickson around 1959, beautiful wood, relined leather case.
And in its case:
1887 J Rigby & Co 12b Underlever SLE 30” x 2 ½” nitro damascus barrels, highly figured replacement wood, oak & leather case.
And cased:
1892 W P Jones of Birmingham 12b SLE, 30” x 2 ½” nitro reproof barrel, highly figured stock, Makers oak & leather case. Notably, it has not only a pair of replacement strikers in their dedicated pot but also a pair of spare mainsprings and spare ejector springs.
And in its case:
1890 Holland & Holland 12b 1st Type Royal with two sets of barrels, both 30”, one 2 ½” Nitro and the other 3” Nitro (1200 bar). Presented in a leather case blocked for both sets of barrels. This is an absolutely delicious example of H&H’s premier model. It features the best level of engraving and with its two sets of barrels can handle everything from soft, 2 ½” x 3/4oz up to the occasional 3” wildfowling load (not Superior Steel).
And in its case:
1891 Holland & Holland 1st
Type Royal 12b. Nitro reproof 30” x 2 ½” x Cyl/IC and a 15 3/8” replacement highly figured stock.
And in its case:
So with
all these goodies to look at, I hope to see you at the Southern in a few weeks!
Very best regards,
Toby Barclay
Historic Guns For The Modern Sportsman
