This & That: A new lease of life for an old Westley Richards BLNE

This & That

A new lease of life for an old Westley Richards BLNE

Acquired a nice, if tired, old Westley Richards 12-bore boxlock, non-ejector at the weekend. (Opinions differ at to age: one source suggests 1903 whilst another suggests 1938). After shooting clays with a Miroku over/under, its a bit of a shock to go to a pre-War, double-trigger side-by-side! With 32" barrels, it looks like an awful lot of metal in front of you!

The previous owner religiously cleaned the barrels but stored the gun butt down, and allowed a large amount of oil to run back into the woodwork. I am now using a paste of acetone and calcium carbonate powder to extract the oil from the stock and fore-end.

The external surfaces had a small amount of rust which has cleaned off easily. The right barrel is unchoked and the left barrel is relatively tight at somewhere between 3/4 and Full. I'll check the actual choke dimensions when I can lay my hands on a bore gauge.

The serial number is T11335 and shows that the gun is one of Westley Richards' T-series. The lack of embellishment and simple lines mark this out as what would generally be known as a 'farmer's gun'. I can't find any written information about the T-series and would be pleased to receive any info from readers.

Update: Hmmm. About 10 minutes after typing the preceding paragraph, suggesting that WR's T-series were farmers' guns, I have just come across a reference to a matched pair of 28-bore WR sidelocks made for H.H. The Maharaja of Jind, serial nos. T11195 & T11196 (about 200 lower than my serial number). Looking at the photos of the Mharaja's 28-bores on the Cabela's website, it is plain that they are not farmers' guns!! So what exactly comprise a T-series gun?