Guns & Outdoors Forum

I thought I would introduce another gun from my collection of guns made in Derby. This one was made by Robert Lisle. He was first listed as trading from 5, The Arcade, Sadler Gate, Derby in 1895 before moving to 25, Derwent Street, Derby in the early 1900's where he traded for some years. He appears to have occupied both numbers 24 and 25 with one being the gun shop and the other dealing in fishing tackle although I have seen guns marked with both addresses but more usually with just Derwent Street. This particular gun however was made when at his final premises at Queen's Hall Chambers, London Road, Derby where he was only from 1928 until his closure in 1930. The gun is a 28 inch barrel sidelock ejector and rather unusual in that it has a narrow rib more usually associated with guns made by Robert Churchill of London. Probably to a customer's specification. The gun is lightly choked for 2 1/2" cartridges and sometimes accompanies me when out shooting wood pigeons due to its light weight and fast handling capabilities. I am still trying to track down one of his earlier examples made at the Sadler Gate address.

Wow, I would be afraid to let my kids touch it, very nice

BEAUTIFUL!!!!

The craftsmanship of that era is simply amazing. Beautiful shotgun!

Thank you. I'll add something else from the dark depths of my gun cabinets soon. Sorry no interesting pistols as such; just shotguns and sporting rifles.

A beautiful shotgun! Thanks for sharing.

Stunning shotgun!

Really nice shotgun!

I don't know much about shotguns, but I do know when one is a fine specimen

Chiro1989 wrote: ↑Thu Mar 27, 2025 11:43 am Wow, I would be afraid to let my kids touch it, very nice

Hell, I'd be afraid to touch that thing if it were mine. It's absolutely beautiful. That kind of craftsmanship is unparalleled.

Wow! That is gorgeous

The thing that always staggers me with the really good ones:

They somehow managed to get the wood so precisely socketed onto the steel that it looks like the metal is just different colored grain that grew out of the same tree. . .and they ALSO managed to get the wood sanded down to be perfectly flush with the metal surfaces after getting finished. To pull that off on one surface is impressive enough, but they're working in at least FOUR dimensions here: both sideplates and the upper and lower tangs. RESPECT!

Most mass-produced modern stuff is of course crap by comparison - mere handles attached by robots for purely utilitarian purpose. Winchester and Remington both did a pretty convincing job of it pre-WWII considering the scale they were making stuff on. I'd give a good sum to time travel to about 1880 to see how Winchester did it in batches, then go visit Holland to watch it done "for reals".

That is a gorgeous gun. Thanks for sharing!