Westley Richards

Droplock Shotgun

Prices from POA

Available from .410 to 12-bore. Best quality, hand-built shotguns, entirely made in Birmingham to our own design since 1897. Discover more about the heritage design, landmark innovations and unique performance of this celebrated sporting gun.

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The Westley Richards game gun is built to our classic 1897 patent. Graceful, poised, reliable and efficient; a hand-made sporting gun of the highest order, in the finest traditions of the English gun trade.

Perfection by Design

Leslie B. Taylor, our then managing director, patented his famous hand-detachable-lock action in 1897. With minor modifications, it was perfected by 1909 in the form we know today. For over a century, the ‘drop-lock’, as many know it, has served as the pre-eminent British sporting gun, beloved of generations of royalty and aristocracy, captains of industry and the social elite.

Uniquely Practical

Unlike any other design available to sportsmen, the ‘drop-lock’ may be dis-assembled in the field, without tools, in three simple movements. If desired, new locks can be inserted and shooting can continue un-interrupted. For security in storage or in transit, locks may be kept separate from the gun.

“Unquestionably it is greatly to the credit of Westley Richards that they can claim three-fourths of the modern top-lever hammerless gun (as made by any maker) to be the outcome of their ingenuity.”

G.T TEASDALE-BUCKELL • Author of The Complete Shot (1907)

Tradition and Precision

Westley Richards’ shotguns are produced entirely in Birmingham, in our Victorian factory, where time-served gunmakers practice skills and use tools their great grandfathers would have recognised. Component parts are made next-door, by Westley Engineering. The most modern technology and machinery used in the Gun Trade compliments the traditional skills of our gunmakers, ensuring precision and artistry: the necessary ingredients for the perfect sporting gun.

No Limit to Customisation

Every part of the build is bespoke to the client. Barrel-length, stock length and profile, chambers, chokes, rib, weight, engraving: everything is made to suit the needs and desires of the individual. Every gun is unique. Whether it be a heavy wildfowling gun or a lightweight destined for the quail plantation, Westley Richards builds only perfection for the desired application.

 By choosing a Westley Richards best sporting shotgun, a select few clients each year add their orders to those in the books recording the long history of England’s oldest gun-maker. England’s Glory since 1812.

Enquire today to begin the journey of your bespoke Westley Richards Side by Side Droplock Shotgun

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