The best of British guns
ATKIN GRANT & LANG
Atkin Grant & Lang (AG&L) is an amalgamation dating from 1960, but its roots go much deeper. Further, it has a strong connection to the greatest of the gunmakers: in 1828, Joseph Lang married one of James Purdey’s daughters. The first Henry Atkin worked with his father, Charles Atkin, who was a graduate of Purdey’s workshop. Their current reputation rests on a ‘springopener’ sidelock based on a modified Beesley action, the most famous example of which was built for the gun writer Gough Thomas. Henry Atkin over-and-under shotguns are based on the Woodward-style action, patented in 1913 and renowned for being lightweight, robust and one of the best over-and-under designs ever created. Stephen Grant was an Irishman who worked for Thomas Boss.
Historically, the firm is best remembered for its serpentine side-lever guns. The current offerings from AG&L in the Grant name are a rebuilt side-by-side and a roundaction over-and-under. Lang famously built an early breechloader for Ivan Turgenev and later developed multiple systems of handdetachable sidelocks. Today, the name is represented by big rifles in bolt-action and side-by-side double configurations.
BOSS & CO
Like several other Best London gunmakers, Boss & Co can trace its lineage back to the Regency era, when Thomas Boss served time with Joseph Manton. Known as the ‘King of the Gunmakers’, Manton was largely responsible for the full flowering of the flintlock, where only perfect work would reliably fire the charge.
Quality has long been crucial to Boss & Co’s success, but the
