Index

George Gibbs
History

The following information appeared in a trade directory featuring towns around the River Severn in south west England. The directory was entitled 'Progress. Commerce. 1893.'

George Gibbs, Gun and Rifle Manufacturer,
39 Corn Street, Bristol

This large business was founded some fifty or sixty years ago in Thomas Street, and from there was subsequently transferred to 21, Clare Street. In 1858 the firm removed to their present premises at 39, Corn Street. The manufactury, Rupert Hall, St. John’s Bridge, was built in 1875, and the tools and appliances there are most perfect. Mr. George Gibbs has a national reputation for first-class guns and rifles, and his house is one of the very few establishments outside of London and Birmingham where guns and rifles are manufactured throughout. Mr. Gibbs was the inventor of the first hammer-less gun adopted by the public and the trade, and can thus claim the distinction of having influenced the introduction of a type of sporting weapon which is now in universal use. He is also proprietor and sole manufacturer of the Gibbs (Farquharson) Metford Rifles, which have been so successfully used at Wimbledon. Medals gained at Paris in 1867 and 1878, at London in 1862, at Philadelphia in 1876, and at Calcutta in 1883, attest the superior character of the guns and rifles produced by this well-known house. At the recent South Africa and International Exhibition, Mr. Gibbs was the recipient of no less than four gold medals, those being the only gold medals awarded in the class. These were respectively for the Metford sporting rifle, Metford target rifle, the hammerless gun and the best all round exhibit. The stock held at the establishment in Corn Street is one of the largest and best in the trade, and embraces every description of gun, rifle, revolver, &c., for sporting and other purposes. A very large wholesale and retail trade is controlled, a great many prominent noblemen and gentlemen in all parts of England being among the patrons of the house, and the firm also export extensively to South Africa, and also India, Persia, Russia, and Japan, where they have influential connections in the ranks of the most celebrated sportsmen.

 

The Gibbs-Metford Rifle

The Rigby muzzle loading match rifle is famously known for being used by the Irish Team that competed at Creedmoor in 1874 against the USA. The rifle then used shallow rifling and a hardend lead bullet.  Its time-line in this form is not always appreciated nor is the influence of the work of William Metford.

The 1865 Cambridge Cup match in Great Britain, which comprised two days shooting at 1,000 and 1,100 yards, fifteen shots at each range each day, was won by Sir Henry Halford using a Gibbs-Metford match rifle. The Times of 15 June 1865 had this to say of the rifle: "The weapon with which the prize was won, will, it is said, create some stir among those interested in small-bore and long-range shooting, being on entirely new principles." Metford’s design utilised shallow rifling and a hardened expanding cylindrical bullet.

Rigby adopted the principles demonstrated by Metford which generated some 'open letters' in the press. Metford later wrote:

"It is my wish to say that I distinctly claim the discovery of the expanding hardened cylindrical bullet, and the application of it to the highest class of shooting; and I claim to have publicly proved the value of the discovery [Cambridge Cup match result above], at a time when nothing but either heavily rifled fitting or soft lead bullets were believed in. It is fair both to myself and to Mr. Rigby, who has renounced both his former rifles and adopted the hardened expanding system, with its accompanying shallow rifling, to say that on my pressing him he has in a public paper stated that the hardened expanding cylindrical bullet was my invention and discovery, and not is own."
 
Collecting

Gibbs-Metford Muzzle Loading Rifle

  
  Gibbs-Metford rifle Rifle No.49 - match rifle  
  Rifle No.66 - match rifle  
  Rifle No.1011 - match rifle  
  Rifle Sights  
  Gibbs rifle sights Metford Rifle Sights - cased set of sights  
  Rifle sights numbered B2002 - possibly for a military breech loader
     
 
References
  • Metford Muzzle-Loading & Breech-Loading Match & Military Rifles by W.E. Metford. Arrowsmith, Bristol, UK, c1876 (contains angles of elevation tables, and memoranda on the management of the rifles)
  • Memoir of William Ellis Metford by T.F.Freemantle. UK, May 1900
  • Remembered for Rifling by Musketeer. Guns Review, UK, February 1963
  • Sir Henry Halford's Rifle (Gibbs-Metford) by John T. Amber. Gun Digest, USA, 1980
  • A Gibbs-Metford Muzzle Loading Match Rifle by George A Hoyem and Elmer Rinas. The Gun Report, USA, May 1983
  • The British Falling Block Breechloading Rifle from 1865 by Jonathan G. Kirton. R&R Books, USA, 1997. ISBN 1 884849 21 0
  • British Single Shot Rifles, Volume II: Gibbs Farquharson by Walter G. Winfer. R&R Books, USA, 1998. ISBN 1 844849 25 3
  
© DB Minshall 2011