A very warm welcome to Heritage Guns

We are dedicated to the restoration of fine shotguns and their accessories. Using a finely balanced combination of traditional and modern techniques and materials, we work tirelessly to bring these beautiful examples of true craftsmanship back to full working condition.

 

Recent Shows

The Southern Side by Side Championship & Exhibition 24th to 27th April, 2025 Venue: Deep River Sporting Clays, Sanford NC. Regrettably, due to recent abdominal surgery, I was not able to attend this year but all vendors reported a brilliant show with kind weather. I have every hope to be there next year. This is really the premier, dedicated S/S show in the USA and, although I couldn't be there personally, we had our usual booth in the sponsors tent, exhibiting some of our stock. Bob Nay of MacNab Fine Firearms and J-P Daeschler of John Dickson & Son, whose booths bracket mine, very kindly were on hand to offer information and advice. If you have been before, you will know that a single day wouldn't do it justice so, next year, try and make the whole weekend. Click below for more details.

The Vintage Gunners Cup 3rd-5th October 2024 Venue: Hopkins Hunting & Sporting Clays in Kennedyville, MD. This event has moved back to this venue after a break of several years. Hopkins is an excellent venue and I heard that the event was a great success. Our presence in person was impossible due to conflicting family commitments but Bob Nay of MacNab Fine Firearms was there and exhibited several of my restored guns and cases.

 

 

Some Recent Additions To Our Stock List

This gun is a very fine example of the rare and famous round action shotguns for which James MacNaughton is renowned. One does not have to look very hard to appreciate the loveliness of this gun. Complete with replacement steel barrels by John Dickson & Son and beautiful original wood of excellent dimensions, this is a very desirable gun. What is really interesting about the round-action design is that although Dickson is synonymous with the action type, it was actually patented and first used in the UK by MacNaughton. It was then copied by Dickson which apparently caused some friction between the two Edinburgh gunmakers, although it never came to court and a private settlement is thought most likely. However, the cocking slide and so called ‘gear rods’ are a Dickson patent and were duly copied by MacNaughton: what goes around, comes around! Our sensitive restoration of this rare gun. excellent stock dimensions and fine nitro proofed replacement barrels make it a very useable, pretty and collectable gun for any connoisseur of Scottish gunmaking. Presented in a contemporary leather case, which has antique reinforcing on edges and corners, relined in all wool burgundy baize and fitted with a reproduction Maker’s trade label and some accessories. Click here for full details.
W P Jones shared the same first names as his father and was the second generation of the Jones family to be a gunmaker in the famous Birmingham gun quarter. He moved to Whittall Street shortly before this gun was built and established a thriving business, mainly manufacturing guns for the trade but producing a few bearing his own name, such as this.  The gun we have here is an excellent example of the rather better quality guns that the Birmingham trade could produce. What is very unusual is that this gun comes complete with a spare set of ejector and lock main springs. With its highly figured walnut stock, fine damascus barrels and our sensitive restoration, this shotgun would make an excellent gun for both game and clays. Presented in an oak and leather case, lined in red baize and fitted with some accessories, spare strikers and a Maker’s trade label. For full details, click here.
Holland & Holland records show that this gun was finished in 1891 for ‘Dodd’ and is a very lovely example of Holland & Holland's 'flag ship' gun. The original Whitworth Fluid Pressed Steel barrels have survived the intervening years brilliantly and were specified with cylinder chokes but a little choke has been added over the years in the left barrel. There is considerable original hardening colour on lockplates and parts of the action. The highly figured restock is thought to be quite recent and although we have no indication of just when it was done, the head of the stock is stamped ‘AWR’ which might help in tracking down the stocker and his records. The stocking is the work of a very skilled craftsman and this leads one to assume that the work was done by a stocker with considerable experience of H&H stocks, maybe even an ex-H&H worker. The gun balances almost exactly on the knuckle. With its excellent weight and balance, interceptor sears, fine stock and barrel dimensions, this gun would make a superb target or game gun for the discerning shooter. Presented in a contemporary leather & brass case, relined with ‘Rifle Green’ baize, equipped with some accessories and fitted with the Gunmakers’ labels. For more details on this lovely gun, click here!