Guns & Outdoors Forum

I thought it about time I got posting again after a rather busy year. This is another one of my 'Derby' made guns and is rather unusual as it is a combination gun. That is a double barrel with both barrels being of a different calibre. Many such guns were made in Britain for the South Africa trade and named 'Cape Guns'. They are usually found in .577/450 Martini Henry and either 16 bore or 12 bore shotgun combinations. This is a sort of miniature version of that concept. This one is in .300 Rook Rifle and .410 shotgun. An ideal rifle for small game. The .300 Rook cartridge is a straight wall cased round firing an 80 grain lead bullet at around 1,100 fps. Intended for small game notably Rooks which are a species of crow that nest communally. This round is for shooting the fledgling rooks as they make their first attempts to fly. Traditionally that date is the 12th. May. The young rooks are made into Rook Pie; quite a delicacy or so I'm told having never tried it. The high angle of the shot requires a bullet heavy enough to despatch the rook but without the bullet flying on to do damage in the event of a miss. Ammunition is no longer made but the odd box can be picked up by careful search. When I acquired this gun it was in a bit of a sad state with the rib lifted and the forend wood damaged and the barrels in need of a re-black. The gun was black powder proof only and the .410 chambered for the 2" cartridge. 2" ammunition is easily obtainable still but the chamber was re-lengthened to 2 1/2" and re-proofed for Nitro. The gun was expertly restored by the late Dereck Fearn of Catton Gunsmiths. With a long history in gunsmithing he had never come across a gun of this combination so I suspect it is a very rare example. It bears the name of Rosson of Derby but almost certainly came on special order from the Birmingham gun trade to satisfy a customers specific request. Probably made around the 1890's.

A selection of Rook Rifle cartridges: the .45ACP on the left is for comparison. The .300 round is third in from the right. Sometimes also referred to as the .295 Rook. Note the Express type sights on the top rib of the combination.

Interesting!

I've never seen a SXS combination gun. All of the ones I've ever seen had the shotgun barrel on bottom and were mostly made by Savage.
410-22lr is the main one I've seen though 20ga-22lr and one with a centerfire barrel (30-30 maybe???) were also made

Is the 300 rook Center or rimfire?

That is cool! I’ve always wanted a combo gun, and that is a really cool example.

Saw a couple of these in Germany

That is cool! Pretty sure I’ve never seen one before. Run into the Savage 24 from time to time in various configurations. An occasional drilling. Do love seeing the interesting things from your side of the pond. Please keep posting.

A lot of steel around the .300 Rook side, anyone hot rod that round?

That is a beautiful gun. When wood is amazing.

Some good news these guys have what you need if you hand load. I also saw some loaders are using 2 grains of Unique instead of Black powder.

https://www.henrykrank.com/300-rook-bertram-case-3150e/

https://www.buffaloarms.com/

Three grains of Red Dot come out about right. Ballistics are similar to what can be obtained with .32 S&W Long and some Rook rifles can be re-chambered and re-rifled for that round which is an easier loading prospect. I've mustered up enough old factory stuff t keep me going for quite a bit. those you saw in Germany Dan would most likely be 16 bore twinned with a deer round in the 7mm. to 9mm. range. I have seen a few also with a spare set of 16 bore shotgun barrels. I was rather tempted to buy one such combination a few years ago. Most German ones were in the form of three barrel Drillings. I'll post details of one I have sometime soon. I did once see a double .300 Rook made by Holland & Holland; I dared not ask the price!