James Woodward Collection.

[Grumpy]

Some members might be aware that I have a passion for James Woodward guns - I`ve had eight different Woodward top lever, sidelock ejectors - and a deep admiration for the man they called `The gunmakers gunmaker` and the products his company produced. I was therefore extremely interested to see this collection of 12 different Woodward guns being offered ( as a collection ) by the Cotswood Gun Room.
Go to :
http://www.cotswoodgunroom.com/10400/info.php?p=7&pno=0

[eljefe]

"...each gun has been London reproved to take modern shotgun cartridges..."
Grumpy,
Hows this done on a lefauxcheux action? Pins and primers? whats been changed in the re proving?
Axx

[art_collector]

Hi Grumpy,

Thanx 4 posting this site address. Couple of years back I had a 577 bore Rifle by woodward & Co. Internet was not available then nor was information so freely available. No one knew who the makers were as Woodward had possibly closed by then. The rifle had some in.scription which read Made expressely for Duke of.... . It was made to commemerate some hunt in 1869. The rifle was presented to some ruler when he visited England may be four years after the hunt. It had the finest barrels I have ever seen. The Barrels inside used to shine like mirrors. The rifle had ofcourse never been fired. I never saw a stock more beautiful . Some exceptionally beautiful wood... never saw those grains again....the engraving was the finest ... to actually enjoy the fine engraving I always had to look through the magnifying glass in sunlite.
I hade forgotten about the rifle altogether since it was sold ages back. Going through the site I rembered the beautiful piece of history which was with me for a few years.

[Grumpy]

Nothing is changed during reproving. Chamber or barrel work will require a gun to be reproved however.
There are Lefaucheux cartridge actions. I can`t check on the gun you`re talking about Asif because the page is being reconstructed but will have a look as soon it is back online.

[Grumpy]

Woodward & Co were a completely different company from James Woodward and was one of the trading names of George Woodward/Foster & Woodward of Doncaster, Yorkshire. Woodward & Co had guns made by the Birmingham trade.

[Mack The Knife]

Thanks, Grumpy. Will go through them more carefully later.

Finally saw an example of a Bar-in-wood action. BTW, what's an automatic ejector? I thought they all were.

Mack The Knife

[mehulkamdar]

Grumpy,

There was one pinfire 16 bore on the list.

Asif,

Pinfire ammunition is made in small quantities in Italy, the UK and Canada and cases are also made in the US. Of course, the market is very limited and I doubt that any new pinfire guns will ever be made unless some rich Americans get all nostalgic about the past - that has happened before and these days American hunters have been responsible from bringing back all kinds of long dead systems like the Jeffery snap forward underlever, the Jones screw grip etc. WHo knows? There might be a pinfire someday...

AC,

Woodward are not an "unknown" company by any means. They were among the greatest of the British gunmakers and are very well known to anyone who knows British guns. These days Woodward are owned by Purdey though Purdey make only the Woodward U/O model shotgun. There are rumours from time to time about Purdey planning other Woodward designs and they may well bring more out if there is interest in them, espcially in the US.

[Grumpy]

The Woodward O/U is actually built on a Purdey O/U action - a rebadged Purdey in other words. Stupid as the second type Woodward O/U is a superior design to the Purdey. I presume that Purdey don`t have the tooling to produce a Woodward O/U.

[marksman]

Purdey used the name "WOODWARD" intitially when they enterd the over/under market mainly aimed at attracting trap/skeet shooters and American sportsmen. This info was parted with by a reputed and knowledgeable gun dealer who owns one of these "James Woodward" shotguns. I am sure some one from our forum will be able to throw in more info on this one.
Marksman

[Grumpy]

I have to own up to being in error here. I have assumed for some time that Purdey have been using the modified Edwinson Green O/U design that they bought the rights to prior to WWI however it suddenly occurred to me after writing the post above that post WWII Purdeys O/Us are quite different to the deep and ungainly modified Edwinson Green type and very similar to the Woodward. Having now checked I can confirm that the O/U design used by Purdey since 1948 IS the Woodward design and therefore the new Woodward O/Us are the same as the Purdeys but a genuine Woodward design.
Incidentally, when Purdeys bought the Woodward concern in 1949 ( effectively just the name, the rights to the designs and the remaining records ) they paid £444-16-6. A bargain.....except that it took them over 50 years to use the Woodward name.

[Grumpy]

Mehul`s right Asif, there are some pinfire cartridges being commercially made as well as cases. Most people that shoot pinfire guns load their own. I don`t know the proof specs for pinfire cartridges or if there is a nitro proof........

[Alec Swan]

I've come along 2 years after the last posting. Never mind. Woodward was a remarkable man. I have a pair of stunningly elegant sidelock guns, and their NON-EJECTORS!! They have snap action under levers ( depressing the under lever cocks the actions ). They were made in 1889 and have a fair amount of the original colour. Beautiful stocks, and the barrel dimensions are remakably good. I'm going to split them up and sell them individualy. No one who uses 2 guns as a pair would bother with non-ejectors, and I suspect that they would give more pleasure as singles. Any one got any thoughts?

[mundaire]

Not that I've ever owned a matched pair (I simply can't afford such an extravagance, especially considering the 3 gun limit here - not that it's going to be easy to locate a pair in this neck 'o the woods), but it seems somewhat sacrilegious break a pair up... though you do have a point about the non-ejector bit, but my question is, are all pairs bought to be shot at driven game? I would imagine there may be more than a few people out there that would just enjoy having these two beauties in their gun cabinet... Anyhow, please do post pictures of the duo before you sell them.

Cheers!
Abhijeet

[shahid]

Pinfire cartridges guns would not be Nitro Proofed. I dont know what handloaders use now ( Powder ) for pinfire cartridges, but the earlier guns used would not carry NP.

However I assume that just as old guns can be reproofed to NP once they have been subjected to an examination, a Pinfire gun could also be.