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By Jason Harris
Thursday, 20 August 2009
Webley & Scott 3020 shotgun: With the Webley & Scott 3020 shotgun, Webley and Scott have added to their comprehensive gun range with two eye-catching sidelocks made in Turkey - one a side-by-side, the other an over-under.
Webley & Scott 3020 shotgun: Both guns have been built to celebrate Webley & Scott’s 220th anniversary and, appropriately, limited to 220 pieces worldwide.
Here I’m looking at the over-under, which has been supplied in 20-bore but will be joined by a 12-bore before the end of summer.
It’s a field gun with 28in chrome lined monoblock barrels capable of handling steel shot and chambered for 3in cartridges.
The barrels have been fitted with thin-walled multi-chokes and topped off with a narrow 6mm ventilated rib.
Top marks to the makers for the standard of blacking – it’s of very good quality and displays a lovely high gloss.
While the action frame sports a modest amount of scroll engraving the metalwork is dominated by bone charcoal case colouring which is very much in the style achieved by English hardeners in terms of the range of colours created by this process.
By way of contrast the furniture – top lever, guard, safety catch etc – have been blacked to match the barrels, the exception being the actual trigger blade, which has been treated to a deep blued finish.
The trigger on this gun is non-selective and has been set to fire the bottom (under) barrel first and the safety is manual, not automatic as you might expect, or want, in a game gun.
The locks are powered by vee-springs and designed along traditional lines with intercepting safety sears and an extra pin anchoring the bridle to provide added stability to the lock mechanism.
The locks are effectively back locks with the hammer to make the action frame as strong as possible along the forward part of the lock plate.
As you can see from the photographs the lockwork is highly polished and the hammers finished blue.
The ejectors are directly sprung by coil springs underneath the extractors.
Wood to metal fit is very good but I have to say the bit of walnut used to stock this particular over-under is a little disappointing. That said this gun is a pre-production prototype so I’m pretty confident others will be stocked to the same exceptionally high standard as the side-by-side that came in the same delivery as the over-under.
The pistol grip is rounded and proportioned nicely, as is the whole stock shape.
Another nice feature is the slim fore-end with its subtle Schnabel nose end.
Weight of this 20-bore is 7¼lb which is fine in my book because it’s difficult to get the weight down in a sidelock - just ask British gun makers - they’ve had a constant battle over the years with this conundrum.
Stock length is 14½in with drops at comb and heel of 1½in and 2¼in respectively.
The gun comes supplied in a quality wood and leather case.
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