Why do so many people dream of owning a Purdey?

According to the 2021 Game Shooting Census by GunsOnPegs and Lycetts, if money was no object, more people would ask James Purdey and Sons to build them a gun than any other gunmaker. Roughly one in five game shots covet one of the famous London gunmaker’s marriages of engineering and artistry more than anything. Much of this can be put down to the reputation that Purdey has built over hundreds of years, but where does that reputation come from?

The simple answer is that they have been making bespoke guns for the great and the good for hundreds of years, so that now they’re really, really good at it. But gunmaking can be a precarious business, and you don’t stay top of the game for that long without something special. That something can be summed up with one word: craftsmanship. 

What makes Purdey shotguns so desirable?

Craftsmanship isn’t something you can develop overnight. Perhaps you have come across the “10,000 hour rule” - the idea that to become an expert in a particular task or activity you have to spend 10,000 hours honing your skills. Even the youngest craftsman in the room at Purdey's west London workshop has served a five year apprenticeship under the watchful eye of the master craftsmen, so they’re as near as dammit up to that 10,000 hours.

Andrew Ambrose, Director of Gun Sales at Purdey, explained: “From our perspective the apprenticeship programme is absolutely critical to ensure the continuity of skills for the next generation and beyond."

"You have got to serve your apprenticeship to work on a Purdey, and the older guys have to pass on their knowledge. Gunmaking is all about experience. We have highly experienced people in each section and we’re very fortunate in that respect. Their length of service shows not only their love of gunmaking but also of Purdey. If you lose that knowledge it’s gone forever - you can’t go out and buy it.”

Centuries of experience making 'best' guns

When Andrew says “highly experienced” he is, if anything, underselling it. Some of Purdey’s craftsmen have been perfecting their skills for decades. “There are guys who have been with Purdey for 40 and in some cases, 50 years, having started aged 15 or 16 as apprentices,” he says. 

Purdey’s workshop in Hammersmith, opened in 1979 and fully rebuilt in 2015, smells of wood, oil and metal, and is alive with the sound of hand tools - the ring of metal on metal and the swish of sandpaper on wood - as these craftsmen work.

Each person in the factory is a specialist in one of the seven discrete stages of the gun making process - barrel making, actioning, lock working, stocking, engraving,  finishing and finally fitting, with guns moving from section to section, bench to bench. The whole process can take in excess of 1,000 hours of loving labour. 

Painstaking precision

The process of making the action alone takes more than 100 hours, with the actioner using the traditional smoke-blacking technique - putting a fine layer of soot onto the metal using a paraffin lamp - to identify uneven areas and ensure that the various parts fit together perfectly. It is a painstaking process of minute adjustment upon minute adjustment that requires infinite patience and precision. 

Extremely high levels of care are taken over each stage. For example, the barrels are machined and then hand crafted to within thousandths of an inch accuracy. They are then hand-filed to ensure that the tubes are perfectly round, before being ‘struck up’ using specially shaped files.

Another example is the final stage of ‘finishing’; this ‘bringing together’ of all of the various components of the gun is a two-step process that takes 75 hours over three months and includes the application of approximately twenty coats of Purdey’s secret ‘Slacum’ oil taking up to six weeks.

Bespoke handmade shotguns

With great craftsmanship, not only comes the knowledge that you’re buying something of the highest quality, but also the widest possible choice. Companies that employ more modern, tech-driven processes are unable to offer anything approaching the same level of quality and choice. 

“A huge part of buying a gun from Purdey is about the process,” says Andrew. “Depending on the model, it can take up to 2 years from the placing of the order to delivery of the gun, but a major part of what you are buying is the experience.” Clients are kept fully up to speed throughout the gunmaking process, receiving photographic and video updates.

Andrew adds: “Clients often call up for a chat and to find out how things are progressing and so we do build up quite a personal relationship with the client over the process - you share in the excitement with them.”

Although many of Purdey’s bespoke gun clients are based outside the UK, most will make the effort to visit the Mayfair gunroom at Audley House at the start of the order process. “Choosing the wood for their gun is increasingly a key part of the process for many clients,” says Andrew. “We have in excess of over 200 blanks of Turkish walnut at Audley House and, along with the engraving, is one area where people look to stamp their personality on their guns.”

A perfect shotgun

When taking an order, Andrew explains that they try to get as much detail as possible from the client.  “Having clients visit Audley House is great because we can bring out examples of guns to show them.”. All they really need in order to start production is the model type, the required length of the barrels, the trigger configuration and which shoulder the client shoots from. 

Timings can vary on every model but approximately six months after the order has been placed, the client’s stock measurements are required. The client is invited to visit the shooting ground where they will be accompanied by a qualified instructor.

Using a ‘try gun’ (a gun with an adjustable stock), the instructor will observe the client shooting a variety of targets, making adjustments to the stock dimensions based not only on the client’s build, the shape of their face and so forth, but also their personal shooting style. They take 9 key measurements overall, which will then be passed to the stocker to ensure the gun fits perfectly. “It is like being fitted for a Saville Row suit,” says Andrew.

Works of gunmaking art

When you or I pick up a gun, one of the first things we will look at is the engraving. The style and execution of the engraving is another deeply personal choice, but whether you opt for Purdey’s traditional house ‘rose and scroll’ engraving or something more bespoke, you can be sure of the finest possible work, “Engravers now are the best that they have ever been,” says Andrew. “They are producing photographic-quality works of art - some people don’t even believe that some of it is done by hand, and I have to assure them that it is!”

Although around one third of Purdey’s clients request highly personalised engraving - game scenes, portraits of their dogs, or some other stylised scroll work - the majority opt for the Purdey’s traditional in-house pattern - “people want their Purdey to look like a Purdey,” says Andrew, “but there’s still plenty of scope for personalisation - you can have rose and scroll on the sides of the action, but something more personal on the underside, you can have engraved grip-caps, ovals, even the top-lever.” 

Are there any parts of the gun that can’t be customised? “There are a few things,” says Andrew, “like the length of the trigger tang for example, that can’t be changed, because it is important we keep that “Purdey” design, but not many.”

Buying a Purdey is an experience like no other

What this means is that every gun that leaves the Purdey factory is built to the exact specifications of the customer, and that each gun is genuinely unique. “Ultimately it’s about the experience of making those choices,” Andrew explains. “The more involvement we get from the client the better. When someone says “oh I’ll leave it up to you”, that’s my worst nightmare - we want clients to end up with a gun that is 100% their gun.” 

Andrew adds that for many clients, the delivery of the gun often - if not an anticlimax exactly - represents the end of a highly enjoyable process, and it can be a somewhat wistful moment. “Of course, they now own a Purdey, and can enjoy owning it, handling it, shooting with it, so where one chapter ends, another opens.”
 

To find out more about Purdey's craftsman-made shotguns and rifles, visit their website or drop into their flagship London store .