Fine Gunmaking

Through the years I have discussed and illustrated various sidelock and boxlock mechanisms and received favorable comments from readers interested in seeing the insides of double guns and gaining a greater understanding of how the parts function. Although I have always had an affinity for triggerplate, round-action guns, until recently I have not had the opportunity to disassemble and photograph individual examples. Having planned a column discussing a MacNaughton round-action double, I was fortunate when a triggerplate gun completely unknown to me was brought into my workshop. This gun by Robert Schrader of Gottingen, Germany, presented the opportunity to discuss the differences between the popular Scottish round-action, triggerplate guns and put them in historical context with the German triggerplate “Blitz” action guns.
    A triggerplate action is defined as one with its lock mechanism—i.e. hammers, sears, mainspring and so on—mounted on the triggerplate rather than to the inside of the action body like on a boxlock or on a sideplate like on a sidelock.
    MacNaughton and Dickson made the true Scottish “round-action” guns. They are not to be confused with “rounded” sidelocks, originally offered by Boss and currently from makers in Britain, Spain and Italy. Nor should they be confused with “rounded” boxlocks, which have their square corners pared off yet retain all of their internal boxlock mechanisms and are offered by many gunmakers worldwide. A current offshoot is represented by the removable-trigger-mechanism guns being offered by makers around the globe. But as far as I know, only David McKay Brown currently manufactures (his version of) the true Scottish round-action, triggerplate gun.
    It may boggle the mind of the round-action aficionado, but at one time Dickson’s offered triggerplate guns with the action styling of boxlocks strictly to gain gun buyers’ favor by making them look like “normal” boxlocks. Some even had false sideplates to mimic the styling of sidelock actions. I’ve never had the opportunity to disassemble or photograph a “triggerplate boxlock” and am curious what is actually inside the action body.
    Another variation is the so-called skeleton action, like on some MacNaughtons. The majority of the sides and bottom of the action body are completely cut away, and the stock is extended forward in its place. The triggerplate is completely surrounded by wood, only connecting to the action by upward-projecting screws, and it appears to float in the stock.
    I first saw photos of this style of MacNaughton in books by noted British author Geoffrey Boothroyd, who referred to it as “bar in wood,” and it was said to be a favorite of his. About a dozen years ago I had one of these guns in my workshop for a screw replacement and was able to photograph it before returning it to the client. I think that these skeleton guns present the absolute pinnacle of elegance and grace in a double shotgun.
    Triggerplate actions can be made much smaller in size, both in width and length, than conventional boxlock actions. This is because the action body is virtually solid, not requiring the space for internal mechanical parts. Many also lack cavities front to back for the cocking levers, making solid action bodies considerably stronger for their size.
    Because of their solid forms, MacNaughton, Dickson and some German guns’ action bodies are very round—more closely approximating the shapes of the stock grips than blocky boxlock shapes do. Because the true triggerplate mechanism is behind the action, a large portion of the weight is in the rear hand. This makes the balance point farther back than the “between the hands” ideal of boxlock and sidelock guns.
    These characteristics of action size, shape and weight distribution make the goal of producing a light gun with longer barrels somewhat easier to achieve, along with the “dynamic handling” qualities preferred by upland game shooters.
    Probably the greatest disadvantage of triggerplate guns is the weakness of their stocks. Hollowing out the wrist area, already the thinnest part of a double-gun stock, and minimizing the recoil-shoulder areas as the size of the action decreases makes for a weaker stock, although I can’t say as I’ve seen more round-actions with broken stocks than any other style of double gun.
    In the vein of previous columns on sidelocks and boxlocks, I will present an inside look along with an explanation of how triggerplate actions function. I had planned on presenting a MacNaughton, and at press time I am looking for a Dickson to photograph, but the Robert Schrader shown here came along unexpectedly and helped me understand the developmental sequence between German and Scottish triggerplate guns.
    I had always been confused about who invented the triggerplate action. I had heard Anglophiles say it was James MacNaughton, the invention covered by British Patent No. 2848 of 1879. The Scottish round-action was later refined by John Dickson, first in 1882 with a patent (No. 873) for a three-barreled gun, and then in 1887 when it was refined and presented as a side-by-side (Patent No. 9399). A further-refined Scottish-built round-body is David McKay Brown’s current version. All three were developed and manufactured in Scotland, hence the association and universal name recognition of the Scottish round action. I, along with many other double-gun fanciers, find all three of these guns to be some of the most elegant-looking and finest-handling shotguns ever made.
    It came as a surprise when I learned that the Germans had developed the Blitz triggerplate action much earlier than the Scots. German triggerplate guns actually pre-date the German patent laws of 1877 and were in use in Germany well before the British patent for the MacNaughton.
    My German correspondent, Axel Eichendorff, who I connected with via the German Gun Collectors Association, has helped me understand the development of triggerplate actions—providing a lot of information and patent drawings of Blitz actions as well as photos of early German triggerplate guns.
    The mechanism shown in the lower photo on page 32 belongs to an Eichendorff family gun: a round-action side-by-side showing a variation of the manual cocking feature I will discuss next time with the Robert Schrader gun. This mechanism was patented in 1879—the same year as the MacNaughton—by Franz Feist, who called it the Hubertus. It was built by Meffert of Suhl, Germany, which manufactured guns of this type until World War I.
    This example features a single, four-pronged, Omega-shaped mainspring and hammers that are cocked by swinging out a lever under the forearm. The gun is put in the “fire” mode by pulling up the horn-covered underlever, which removes the blocks from the triggers and sears. This gun was purchased by Eichendorff’s great-great-grandfather around 1894 and is seeing its sixth generation of use by Axel’s daughter.
    The function and mechanisms of triggerplate actions will become clearer when I look at the inside of the Schrader next time and Scottish guns at a later date.

Steven Dodd Hughes has been creating and writing about custom guns and gunmaking for more than 35 years. His three books as well as more information can be found at www.finegunmaking.com.