Rigby-Bissell Patent No. 1141 of 1879
James Purdey introduced his famous double-underlug bolting system for double-barrel shotguns and rifles in 1863. It employed a bar, actuated by the toplever, that slid forward and rearwards under the water table of the action, engaging with corresponding notches cut into the two barrel lumps. Of course, on the very early firearms, before the invention of the Scott spindle, a toplever was not used to unlock the action, but rather some form of underlever or side-lever.
This system was simple and extremely strong, but because it was protected by Purdey’s patent (No. 1104 of 1863), other gunmakers used various types of locking systems for many years. By the time Purdey’s patent expired in 1877, its superiority to the other bolting systems had become blatantly…
