‘Gunsmithing British Side by Side Shotguns’

Someone ought to make a detailed video showing double-gun disassembly and repair.” I’ve heard it said many times, and I’ve heard a few people say that it’s such a good idea that they were going to do it. Finally, someone actually has.
    Larry Potterfield is CEO of Midway USA, the massive retailer of all things gun related, and the host/interviewer for the recent video “Gunsmithing British Side By Side Shotguns.” Potterfield picked probably the best fellow in the US to present material about British double guns: John F. “Jack” Rowe, who trained in the Birmingham trade and who in 1982 emigrated from the UK to work at Champlin Firearms, in Enid, Oklahoma. I’ve known Jack for 20-plus years, and he is well known for helping American gunsmiths understand the nuances of British guns. I’ve long wanted to attend one of his summer courses on double-gun ’smithing but have never made the time for it. Now he’s come into my office on this video to teach me.
    At age 76, Jack is wonderful in this unpretentious presentation. It takes a clear ear to get in step with his soft-spoken British accent—as with “amma” (hammer) or “acksaw” to describe the tools on every bench. But Jack’s voice of experience, his tools and his mannerisms all tell of his half-century in the gun trade. Potterfield acts the straight man, asking pertinent questions during the bench instruction or repeating Jack’s message.
    And that is exactly what you see: After about a half-hour of introduction and discussion of tools, it’s just Jack and Larry at the workbench. The topics—including basic inspection, cleaning, actionwork, making a leaf spring, adjusting trigger pulls, tightening the bite, rejointing barrels, timing ejectors, and disassembling and reassembling both an A&D boxlock and a Holland-type sidelock—cover just about all the bases. There are more than four hours of gunsmithing instruction in this one video.
    The last part of the presentation covers three different ejector systems, and I found it very enlightening. Southgate, Baker and Westley Richards ejectors are each stripped, with the function of each system’s parts explained and the timing discussed.
For those who aspire to learn to work on British side-by-side guns, this video is an absolute must-have, but I imagine a much larger following from those who simply want to see how it was done and maybe make a properly ground screwdriver to see what’s inside their own shotguns. The thought that kept coming to mind for me was that although I had done many of the processes, I had never seen anyone else do them. I sure wish I’d had this kind of instruction available 25 years ago. Don’t expect to go away with the know-how to make a Purdey mainspring, but take it from me: This is a marvelous production.
“Gunsmithing British Side By Side Shotguns” is available as a DVD for $29.99 from Midway USA, 800-243-3220; www.midwayusa.com.  —Steven Dodd Hughes