Shooting Gazette – September 2019

72 SEPTEMBER 2019 WWW.SHOOTINGGAZETTE.CO.UK

GunmakinghistorianDonaldDallasona formerpercussion

gun which found new life as a centre-fire breech-loader.

Great guns

Thomas Boss conversion

O

ursocietytodayis a

throwawaysociety;most

manufactureditemshave

a limitedshelflifeand

arediscardedaftera certainperiod.

Repairis a thingof thepastand

it is normallyfareasier to replace

thanrejuvenate.

Thiswascertainlynotthecasein

the19thcenturyas faras gunswere

concerned.Justlookat themany

thousandsof antiqueandvintage

gunsthatcomeupforsalewithnew

barrels,replacementstocksandso

on. If a gun wore out it wouldn’t

bediscarded,newpartswould

befittedto it. A goodgunwas

regardedas lastingnotonlyforlife,

butwasintendedto bepassedonto

thenextgeneration,so greateffort

wasmadeto ensureit remainedin

goodworkingorder for scores of

yearsto come.

Inadditionto replacingbarrels

andstocks,manyownerswentone

furtherand,in thegreatinnovative

yearsof the19thcentury,had

theirgunsmodifiedto bringthem

rightupto datewiththelatest

improvements. Flintlock guns

wereconvertedto percussion

guns,percussiongunsconvertedto

breech-loaders,non-rebounding

locksto reboundinglocks,non-

ejectorsto ejectorsandso on.

Oneof themostdifficult

conversionsof allwasto convert

percussiongunsto breech-loaders,

asit involvedthecomplete

rebuildingof thegun.A great

manygoodpercussiongunswere

thusconverted,butit wasvery

expensive,andforanownerto

embarkuponthiscourseof action,

it surely meant that he had a great

Flintlock to percussion conversion

Firinga flintlockwasa

frustratingexperience.It

misfiredatexactlythewrong

moment,rainaggravated

mattersandit required

expertiseintrimmingthe flint

toensureit sparked.

Whenthepercussion

coppercapcamealongin

the1820sit wastheanswer

toeverysportsman’sprayer.

Thousandsofflintlockswere

convertedtopercussion

mostlybythecheapand

simpledrum-and-nipple

method.Althoughvery

practical,it wasanugly

conversion.It wasfarbetter,

butfarmoreexpensive to

rebuildthegun.

ThefamousJohnand

JosephMantonneedno

explanationbutsuchwas

theesteeminwhichthey

were held that probably more

thanhalftheirflintlockswere

convertedtopercussion.The

pairofpistolsillustratedby

JohnMantonareanexcellent

exampleofa pairofflintlock

pistolsbuiltaround 1809 and

converted,probablybyJohn

Manton,inthe1820s.

Thequalityofthe

conversionistopclassand

atfirstglancetheylook

asif theyweremadeas

percussionpistols.New

breecheswithpercussion

nippleswerefitted,thecocks

andfrizzensdiscardedand

thepanscutoff.Thelocks

werere-engravedandnew

percussionhammersfitted.

Aconversionlikethis

wasexpensivebutthe

finishedresultisperfect.The

conversionhasbeendone

expertlyandtheylooklikea

new pair of percussion pistols.

ApairofJohnMantonflintlockpistols

c.1809expertlyconvertedtopercussionin

the 1820s, probably by John Manton.

ANDREW ORR/HOLTS AUCTIONEERS