Was kindly sent these pics of a Gem repeater, a very rare thing indeed!...Enjoy

...but who made it? 😀

Originally posted by Dave (DCL_dave)

Following John Milewski's excellent article in the October edition of Airgun World (which featured this Gem repeater) John was contacted by a chap who had seen and worked on this Gem in it's recent past...

Many thanks go to Mr Jenkins and John Milewski for permission to post the letter here. 

Dear Sir,
On reading the article in the new Octobers edition, Headed a jewel in Air gunning’s Crown, Relating to the Repeating Gem,
If I may through you, and also as a story for yourselves, can you pass on to the current owner for me a little bit more of the History on this little Gun, I think he’ll be pleased to know about, Thanks?

The History story goes, One club meeting night at my local Gun club about 7 years ago our club secretary asked me, George you collect old Air Guns and mess about with them, !! Yes I said, (As we do after 40 odd years of collecting and tinkering with them,)
It’s just a friend of my brother’s up in Scotland has a funny little air gun that’s not working and in need of looking at with regard to getting it working again, Ok I said bring it down the next time you go to visit your brother,
Month’s and months went by, Then he brought it into the club one night, I undraped the parcel and out came the Gun in John Milewski’s , article, I looked it over and said it looked like the old Gem Air Gun,
But I’ve never came across one with this mechanism on the side, (I was intrigued by now,) We conversed for a while on its neglected appearance with rust and seized parts, But I could see below the rust accumulated muck and seized parts, it defiantly needed saving from the Air Gun’s lost home in the shed, -- As so many have, I said I would take it home and see if I could save its life, After the meeting finished and I got home I took the Gun in to my Garage come model engineers –workshop, I unwrapped it and gave it a good going over with plenty of good release oil to loosen the rust and years of grime, The next day I decided to make a list of what is needed doing to the Gun, before I started with it, Below are the notes I made in 2003,

Air Gun, Repeating or Single – Shot, Sept, 2003.

Notes made in workshop Jotter, as to dimensions and peculiarities, before attempting any repairs as to try and get it working again for him,

This little Gun came to me from a friend,( as a favour to him,) for a friend of his in Scotland who owns the Gun, whom is rather poorly at the present time,

This gun is possibly a Gem, .22 The Gun No is 269, and it is Break Action,
The Gun has an Overall Length 35.1/2”,
Length of Stock – 9.1/4”,
The Barrel and Spring Chamber up to start of Stock is 26.1/4”,
Barrel is 18 m/m, Hexagonal,
Barrel length from muzzle to breech is 18.1/4”,
From the breech to end of air chamber where it meets Stock is 8”,
To cock the Gun lift up the top catch and proceed to fold it in half -
As the trigger guard is the actual cocking leaver and this sets the spring to loaded Cocked position,
The repeating mechanism is on left side of barrel witch looks like part of it is missing,
I.e. some kind of spring loaded tube to hold lead balls under pressure, (have to work this out for the repair,)
It has a cast But Plate and on removing it, it has PM 100 stamped inside,
The rod holding the Stock to the air chamber is of 9 m/m Diameter -
But only has a roughly crude cut 5/16” B, S, W. 18 Tpi Pitch, and this looks original,
On the top flat of the Barrel what looks like stamped in old English letters are what --
I can make out as --- E Ho & F BREVETE 16 (possibly French,)

This is possibly the manufacturer’s initials and the Gun is the 16th made,
(Will try to follow this up later for the History,)
All the Gun Barrel – Cocking Leaver – Air Chamber, are cast parts as is the But Plate,
Also the No 100 - is stamped on other parts,

These pictures are taken during the start of the De rusting and cleaning preparations,

GWJenkins,

The first job I started with was renewing the cross pin in the top Barrel catch as this was fairly worn out
And the action was really slack,
The next job I tackled was to free the side thumb lever with the checkering on the end of it, this is just on the side above where the radius tube feeds the balls - into the Breech,
after I had got this unsezed and working ok, I started freeing and making good a repair to the big valve screw on the side where it goes into the Barrel as the spring inside of this was broken, and when the breech was closed the Tear Drop catch on the side of the air chamber that holds it down wasn’t doing it’s job, I made a new leather breech seal and fitted this and the breech seamed to fit more snugly, By now the little Gun could push a pellet out of the end it was built for – though not of any great power but still suitable for plinking, !! I’m now getting more enthusiastic for the biggest job of trying to design and make some kind of spring loaded mechanism to work the repeating magazine on the side, After rummaging around the workshop I found a piece of tubing that fitted snugly through the guide bracket on the side of the barrel, this would do nicely to make the outer part of the repeating mechanism that was missing, and in the search I also came across a pin from an old windy type derusting – descalling gun, the type used in shipyards for getting the rust of ship’s plates, I then started to take some measurements’ as to what length this adaption should be - to allow a decent amount of ammunition in the magazine that is down the side of the barrel, Once I’d got these measurements I went on the lathe to turn the reduced end of what was going to take the small pin that fits in the side of it to hold the spring loaded Guide in place once it is positioned in the start of the magazine after it is full of ammunition,

To carry on with the build of this adaption I needed to turn a small plug to fit the outer end of the tube to hold the inner spring and plunger pin in place inside the tube, (when this was needed at the end of the job)
this I did after I’d cut the inner pin to length, and also found a suitable inner spring to allow Enough pressure on this plunger pin to travel all the way down the inner part of the magazine tube till the ammunition was all used up,
Once I was satisfied this was all going to work ok, I put the new magazine spring tube in the lathe and knurled the outer end of the tube to make it a little easier to twist with the fingers when removing it to allow loading the ammunition in the magazine, then I reassembled it all and soft soldered the little plug in the end to hold the spring and pin in, I then cleaned this new adaption of and gave it a little Blueing,

Job done and I’m quite pleased to have saved and gave this little Gun a new lease of life,

PS, as the years have gone by, I’ve never heard anything more about this little Gun --After it went back to Scotland,

Then Lo and behold another twist in the History of this little gun crossing my path again, It was October 2009 my friend whom had originally asked me to save this little Guns life asked me if I wanted to buy it as the chap in Scotland wanted to part with it, Alas the price he was asking was above me, as I would have only used it as a wall hanger to go with the other 40 odd air Guns I have in my collection, So I declined his offer,
The next move I hear about this little Gun is it has gone for sale to an Auction House in Yorkshire, in November 2009, and has now moved on to a new owner, whom I am presuming is the person I would like to pass this little bit of other History on to,( Through yourselves if possible,) about this Little unusual GEM of an Air Gun, and the previous work I’ve done to it,

Then fate again it crosses my path, in an article in your wonderful Magazine, Keep up the good work on past and present Air Guns, Thanks’

If any of this request is possible please feel free to pass on my details to the new owner if need be,

Thanks in anticipation,
GWJenkins.

Originally posted by Dave (DCL_dave)

Here are a few more pics courtesy of John Milewski

Originally posted by Dave (DCL_dave)