GUNMAKER William Wellington Greener (1834-1921) was an inventive genius. Not only did he produce superb firearms, he was also the author of an 800-page book on the development of guns. Sometime in the late 1870s, the Greener works at St. Mary’s, Birmingham, made a slim, elegant-looking double-barrelled, under-lever 12-bore with external hammers. I inherited this gun from my grandfather, and my lengthy ownership thereof became the inspiration for this article. This Greener was the first firearm I ever owned and I soon became a dedicated shotgunner with a passion for wingshooting. This story is about my lengthy quest to gather a complete set of original shooting accessories as used by a hunter in the heyday of those early breech-loading shotguns. The search has taken me sixty years to finally assemble all the period-correct accessories.
But why, you may ponder, would a person spend a
