LINCOLN JEFFRIES

The authors and publisher wish to thank Mr. John Groenwold and John Atkins for valuable assistance with the following information in this section of the Blue Book of Airguns. Lincoln Jeffries was born in Norfolk, England in 1847. By 1873, he had established a well regarded gun business in Birmingham producing shotguns and breech loading and muzzle loading air canes. The firm also put their name on a variety of imported break barrel, smoothbore air rifles – generally Gem-style copies of Haviland & Gunn designs and rifled militia-style (not military!) airguns. In 1904, he patented a fixed barrel, underlever, tap-loading, rifled air rifle which was the forerunner of the enormously successful BSA underlever air rifles. These rifles were manufactured for Jeffries by the Birmingham Small Arms factory. They were branded Lincoln Jeffries and later as BSA. These airguns are discussed and listed in the BSA section.
The Lincoln Jeffries firm continued to market the Lincoln Jeffries air rifles until the line of models came completely under the BSA label. By 1921, Lincoln Jeffries, Jr. had been issued a patent for a Lincoln air pistol with the mainspring housed in the gun's grip. Two versions of this unusual, all-metal air pistol were produced in very small numbers during the 1920s, with a few special pistols being individually made by Lincoln Jeffries, Jr. until circa 1927. The first version had a lever in the back of the grip which was pulled down to compress the mainspring and cock the gun. The second type was a barrel cocking air pistol which used the forward part of the trigger guard as a link to compress the mainspring. This was based on the American Haviland and Gunn patent. The Walther LP52 and LP53 air pistols were clearly derived from this gun. The all-metal Lincoln differed from the Walther mainly by not having grip plates and in having an exposed slot in the forward part of the grip which could take flesh samples from a shooter unlucky enough to have his fingertips in that groove when the piston head rushed upward during firing.
The grandsons of Lincoln Jeffries, Messrs. A.H. Jeffries and L.G. Jeffries, were still operating the company in the 1990s, but now only to produce Marksman brand airgun pellets. Ref: Guns Review, Dec. 87.