Velocette

Yes, I'm going to go through the insides and make sure that everything is working as it should. Its a couple of thou' off the face but as it has a simple parallel hinge pin secured by a small screw, making a new, larger one and reaming the hole out should be straightforward. I'll put some more pictures up to illustrate this. The top lever is well over so some metal needs adding to the bites or possibly the bolt depending on the wear. Its got a Greener type cross bolt, round in cross section through the rib extension but square where it exits the action body together with a "hidden bite" at its top edge which may complicate deciding on which area of wear to attend to first. None of it is really bad. One thing I did notice during a brief look inside was the one piece tumblers seem to have a separate "firing pin" fitted into them, possibly brazed, which may be replaceable should the need arise. All in all, plenty to do until the next one turns up .

That's it !! A 1937 Beretta, still full choke in both barrels, 70mm chambers and very good barrels . Its a gun with some history as most private guns at that time were confiscated by the State and only the wealthy/ people with influence could hang on to them. How it got here, still with legitimate proof marks is something to look into. Collect your prize at any time. Happy Christmas !!

And finally.

And some more.

The part with the name on it is not far away !! In the meantime though.

Here are a couple more images.

I'm just starting my latest restoration and thought it may be interesting to see if any of you knowledgeable chaps can spot what it is. I'll post a series of picture clues and offer a box of Imperial Game as a prize to anyone who cares to collect them. The feature of the clues is mainly the painstaking attention to detail the maker took to stamp the serial number on virtually every moving part. Now, the first few clues.

It turned out that Savill was a POW in Oflag V111 F in Silesia and this was his. What a comfort it must have been to recall his sporting memories. A little more searching and I found this site, PIXEL RENOSTER: WWII PRISONERS-OF-WAR (P.O.W.) (pixel-renoster.blogspot.com) Which, incredibly , had a picture of M P Savill. There seems to have been about 2000 prisoners there and his picture is one of the survivors.

Some time ago I bought a book by Eric Parker called "The Shooting Weekend Book" , published in 1943 and one of a series produced by The Lonsdale Library. Its a delightful collection of shooting related articles describing things in that golden period between the wars. It was protected by a plastic cover which I had never removed, however, when I took it off yesterday I found that the fly leaf had been tucked into this cover and revealed this.

I stripped all the nasty varnish off the stock/fore-end and re-oiled them.

Received, Its yours ! Here are some pictures of what you are getting.

This is the gun I recently got for a song from Holts and have shown some images of its condition a little while ago. I needed a gun like this for a Canada goose job and that's done now so someone else can have it. I have some of these cartridges knocking about and thought that they would be just right for the task in hand.

Just hand it in to the Police for destruction . Quick and no cost. SNAP !!

As I stripped the action it was clear that this was a solid artisan made working gun, nothing pretty but all solid and functional. One surprise was the neat articulation of the RH trigger, there I suppose to reduce the risk of recoil whacking ones trigger finger. As for the rest of the machinery, a good clean and relube and it should be fine. The small bolsters on the fences look well and serve a purpose too. The woodwork has been stripped and given a first coat of Alkenet oil before oiling. I'll get some pictures later.

Any excuse to go down to Norfolk led to these two being collected from Holts last Thursday. The Industrias Ilja was a complete unknown but I wanted a 3" SxS for some inland geese and provided it was safe then it would do. At £16.50 all in, that would do too. A quick check of the mechanics revealed nothing untoward, bores spotless, action tight, top lever at five thirty, both triggers were smooth and the ring set strikers popping out where they should. The barrels were proved to 1000kg with tidy blueing. Apart from sorting out the thick chocolate varnish which covered the woodwork there looked to be very little to do apart from a strip down and clean. This is the Holts image from the sale.

If you are looking for sensibly priced parts I've found these people to be very helpful https://southertonguns.com/

Scarista beach last week. Odd moments of sunlight shone through the waves onto the distinctive yellow sand. And another at Seilebost looking out over the sands.

Its not you that has the honesty box bakery down the lane is it ? That place is incredible !

Just had a week up there walking and scouting for photo locations on the coast for Mrs V's current interest in ICM wave pictures. Not a bad drive from here really, about 400 miles/9 hours in scenery that its been over 10 years since we last saw. Its quite a place . The house we had at Seilebost was right on the shore, opposite Luskintyre beach with spectacular sunrises and sunsets over the water. A few miles up the road was Sgarasta Mhor beach with its huge rollers running in over the sandbar and not a living soul in sight. The 15 miles of single track out to Hushinish was alarmingly narrow with completely blind rises in the road every now and then just to keep things interesting, ending with another brisk, up and down, coastal walk opposite Scarp lead to another long beach with more crested rollers. Probably the only place we went with people to speak to was to the couple who run lighthouse at Eileen Glas who were quite delightful. A fantastic, slightly decaying place with enough rusty machinery to keep the most avid creative photographer busy. All in all a spectacular place which we will be revisiting next April and September. As an aside, I wish I still had my Ducati as the road from Tarbet to Stornoway is the finest motorcycling road I've ever seen. Pictures to follow.

They are both rock solid and will be shootable for decades, and they are yours. I can be available most afternoons and evenings except next Saturday. I'll PM you with my address and contact details.

More projects arriving soon so these have to go to make space. First, an IJ58 SxS with 27" cylinder barrels with a wildfowlers "browned" finish, according to the recipe I followed ! The reason for this was to tidy up the rusty barrels without spending ages shifting the light pitting. I quite like it and will probably try it again on a hide gun. I shot a few boxes of steel though it over summer and it worked well from the hide. I fitted an ebony riser to the stock because someone had cut all the comb of to make it fit their very unusual physique. The second is an IJ26 SxS with 28" barrels and 1/2 and full choke. This model is one of the rather better Baikals with ringset strikers and V springs throughout. A well made and solid gun with the tough chrome lined bores which will take any abuse you care to subject it to. Collection only please and I would prefer someone to take both of them as they will probably have to be scrapped if there are no takers.

Get one of these, M4 M5 M6 M8 M10 Carbon Steel Tee Spot Slab Based T Shape Nuts Bottom Welded Pips | eBay Set it into the stock at the front with araldite and screw the swivel stud into it. If you have trouble locating either, message me and I'll pop a couple in the post for you.

What's the phrase, heart in the right place, head in the clouds and a hand in someone else's pocket.

Quite right, it would cost a fortune to assemble a complete gun, with a doubtful past, when a good used but perfectly useable one can be acquired for sensible money. It was merely speculation to consider it a reasonable project, but I'll bet someone will have a go at it.