Guns under the hammer

Auctions – the chance to own the gun of your dreams, or the gun of your worst nightmares? BASC’s director of firearms BILL HARRIMAN knows all about them, he used to work for an auction house, and here he gives a practical guide to bargain hunting.

At a good auction it’s easy to be bewildered by the choice, but studying the catalogue beforehand can save a lot of wasted time. 

For many people, the prospect of buying a gun at an auction is a daunting prospect. It needn’t be; auctions can provide guns at better prices than you would get from a gun shop or dealer.

There are all kinds of horror stories doing the rounds which tend to put people off. Most are urban legends and tales of sales being rigged by rings of sinister dealers or the man who had a £30,000 Purdey knocked down to him because he’d scratched his left buttock owe more to fantasy than ever they do to reality. Salerooms are generally welcoming and friendly places and if the whole process is approached with care, then there is no reason why you should not have a good experience at a sale.

If you decide to buy at auction, then your first step should be to subscribe to the auctioneers’ catalogues. Generally, these are interesting and well produced documents which are compulsive reading. (My wife will confirm this as she constantly bemoans the fact that I have my nose in one at every opportunity.) They also become a useful reference library. Nowadays, most of the bigger auctioneers have websites with on-line catalogues which can be browsed for free.

It pays to read catalogue descriptions very carefully as they will not only list the features of the gun on offer but also any major defects in it. What they will not do is list every minor dent, scratch or ding on the gun.

The auctioneer’s first duty is to present his client’s property in as favourable a light as possible, within the usual bounds of truth of honesty. He must not knowingly make a false statement about the goods in order to persuade someone to buy them. This notwithstanding, the old Latin tag of caveat emptor (let the buyer beware) is always a useful foundation from which to start. Having said that, you should not assume that guns are entered into sales because there is some fundamental, incorrigible and hidden fault with them. The trade offloads its hopeless cases, but the majority of material that passes through the salerooms is good, honest stuff.

If you decide that you would like to bid on an item, or items, from the catalogue, you then need to decide if you want to examine the gun at the sale preview. In my opinion, there is no substitute for looking at guns in the flesh. In any case, sale previews are often social events where the trade, enthusiasts and others meet to chew the fat as well as to look at what is on offer. Some even offer drinks and canapés. 

Previews also give you the opportunity to handle material and get a feeling for the way in which the auctioneer describes the goods in his catalogue.

However, all is not lost if you cannot attend the preview, as most auctioneers have a system whereby their staff will deliver a condition report to prospective buyers over the telephone. In my experience, condition reports are generally well done because auction room staff are professional people who take a pride in their work and have no wish to mislead potential buyers by describing a broken down, rusty wreck as a gun in fine untouched condition with original finish!

A bonus is buying a gun with a history. Here the label reveals that a
previous owner was Capt. Barker of the 60th Rifles, stationed at Rawalpindi, while a Purdey had its original documentation.

You may think that there is not a lot of point in attending a sale preview as you are not an expert in assessing the condition of a gun. Not so. There are a number of points to look for which will give even the greenest novice a sporting chance of walking away from a gun with a serious defect.
 But there are likley to be few of those in a sale where, among several hundred guns, there will surely be some bargains lurking, and maybe even something you have always cherished – the Henry Atkin sidelock or the Rigby .275.

So, having concluded your examination, let’s assume that you have fallen in love with a particular gun and that you want to buy it. What’s the next stage?
In the August issue of Shooting & Conservation I will look at the business of buying at auction – and that allows you ample time to browse through the catalogues and check the state of your piggy bank.

What to look for

Bill’s brief guide to checking a shotgun

• When examining a shotgun, the first thing to do is to remove the forend before checking to see that the barrels are tight on the action. Hold the stock in one hand and the barrels in another and gently twist one against the other. This should show any slack between the two. If the barrels are very loose, the gun probably needs re-jointing. In these days of TIG and MIG welding this is not a big deal.
• Take the barrels off the gun and hold the bores up to the light whilst rotating them slightly. Pitting and other imperfections will show up as dark shadows.
• Dents and bulges can be detected by sighting down the exterior of the barrel or by running the fingertips along its length.
• Loose ribs can be detected by suspending the barrels on the forefinger by the lumps and tapping them. If the ribs are sound, then you will hear a bell-like sound. If the ribs have lifted, there will be a dull clacking sound. Corrosion in the cavities between the ribs and the barrels can be detected by gently turning the barrels whilst listening for fragments of detached rust running up and down the rib cavity.

 

• Many auctioneers offer their clients the facility of putting shotgun barrels on a wall thickness gauge. If you do not know how to do it, then a member of the saleroom staff will help you. If the barrel walls are very thin, then it is not a good idea to buy the gun. The same holds true for proof. Shotgun barrels are proofed to a specific internal diameter. When that becomes enlarged past a certain point, they then are deemed to be “out of proof”. It is perfectly legal for an auctioneer to sell a gun which is in proof, but which is very close to the upper limit. Again, saleroom staff should be able to advise.
• Firing pin function can be checked by using a wooden block pressed up against the breech face. This will show the strike from the firing pins. You can also test the safety catch function at the same time.

   

• Your next job is to look at the action. Examine the firing pin holes in the fences very carefully to check that they have not been eroded or otherwise enlarged. Cracks in actions are generally fairly obvious and one of the most common locations is at the angle where the table meets the fences.

 

• Test the ejectors with snap caps.
• Check the stock very carefully for cracks, particularly in the area of the wrist and also at the end of the top tang immediately behind the safety catch. With the gun assembled, hold the forend in one hand and the stock wrist in the other and gently move your hands to see if there is any play indicating a loose stock.

 

• Pay particular attention to chequering on the wrist as this can often hide a carefully executed repair.
• Oil soaked stocks are best avoided as mineral oil destroys the structure of the wood. It is possible to sweat out oil by placing the stock in a warm place eg a south facing window and periodically dusting it with talcum powder. As the oil oozes out of the wood fibres, the talc soaks it up and it can be wiped off.