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Hammer Guns

Hammer Guns

If you have the slightest interest in classic British guns you should acquire this book. Once you have read it, I confidently predict that you will not only be much more interested, but also thoroughly well informed about its subject.

The author’s essential premise is that the true belle époque of British gunmaking isn’t to be found in the 1930s – when technical development and volume production had so standardised expectations of how a fine gun should look and function as to result in a virtual monoculture – but in the 1870s, when the modern shotgun was taking shape as gunmakers, spurred on by the introduction of the self-contained centre-fire cartridge, vied with each other in pursuit of strength and speed, whilst striving to maintain the poise and grace epitomised in the finest accomplishments of the percussion era. No guns before or since, the author argues, have exhibited such breath-taking diversity, ingenuity and hand-crafted spirit, and the argument is so well made that it is hard to disagree.

Hammer-time

The generosity with which its author imparts the kind of knowledge that can only be accumulated from a lifetime of engagement with the subject in question is admirable too, although sensibly he does leave some of his cards un-played: he has his expert services to sell, after all, as well as his books! If you are not already familiar with “Dig” Hadoke, then you have missed out on a good many engaging and informative articles in the British shooting press – Gun Mart included – on fine firearms, their makers, their restoration, and even how to venture forth into the nation’s salerooms in pursuit of them; salerooms in which the author himself can reliably be found sourcing guns for clients and adding fresh entries to his encyclopedic store of knowledge. If his journalism has passed you by, never mind, as in the current title, and in his earlier books, Vintage Guns for the Modern Shot and The British Boxlock Gun and Rifle, you have a great deal to look forward to.

Comprehensive coverage

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The 200-plus pages of Hammer Guns are organised into no fewer than 45 sections. These cover the history, development, and functioning of Victorian hammer guns; as well as modern attitudes towards them, and the resulting ways in which they are – and should be – valued, restored and traded. The information is presented in a way that ensures it is always easy to follow and never dull – Dig’s trenchant opinions, well-reasoned as they are, along with his somewhat eclectic self-styling, make sure of that – and the text is helpfully, amply and richly illustrated with full-colour photographs, diagrams and tables.

The book would have benefitted from more careful editing and proof-reading, however. Occasional overlaps, shifts of style, changes of implied reader, and instances of imperfect sequencing (signs of compilation from a variety of previously published pieces?) can niggle, and though trivial individually, the frequent errors of punctuation and typography are cumulatively like wasps at a picnic, distracting this reader at least from the delicacies laid out before him. Nevertheless, Hammer Guns remains such an engaging and valuable work that it can surely count on the application of a little more polish in subsequent editions.

Brought to book

Such quibbles aside, if I hadn’t already had the good fortune to be sent a review copy, I would certainly buy this book! Reading it has opened my eyes to an unjustly overlooked area of firearm history and development, helped me to understand more of what came later, and been a thoroughly enjoyable experience to boot. More importantly, in fostering an appreciative eye towards these guns, and in advocating a well-informed and sensitive approach to their preservation and restoration, through this book Diggory Hadoke has done an invaluable service to a precious – and finite – part of our national heritage; another good reason to add Hammer Guns in Theory and Practice to your bookshelf.

Hammer Guns in Theory and Practice, by Diggory Hadoke (Ludlow: Merlin Unwin, 2016), 225 pp. ISBN: 978- 1-910723-25-8. £30

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