MINT BORE**Victorian British R B Rodda Gunmakers To His Excellency The Viceroy London & Calcutta Snider Action .577 2 ½” Black Powder Express Obsolete Calibre Tiger / Lion Hunting Short Rifle / Carbine. Sn 21520 Single Shot .577 Rifles

**MINT BORE**Victorian British R B Rodda Gunmakers To His Excellency The Viceroy London & Calcutta Snider Action .577 2 ½” Black Powder Express Obsolete Calibre Tiger / Lion Hunting Short Rifle / Carbine. Sn 21520 - 21520

R.B. Rodda claimed to have been established in 1830 although in reality it traces its roots much further back than that, to around 1805, originally trading as Brown and Cooper. This was the company that Richard Burrows Rodda joined in 1830, and although the history is a bit sketchy the company name probably became Brown, Cooper and Rodda at that time. In 1846 Brown left the company and it became Cooper and Rodda, and the following year in 1847 Cooper also departed leaving R.B. Rodda as the sole proprietor. Rodda renamed the company R.B. Rodda & Co. based at 36, Piccadilly, London. About three years after this R.B. Rodda & Co. opened another shop, this time in the Indian city of Calcutta at 5 ½ Tank Square, a place that would be renamed Dalhousie Square in 1872, with the result that the address of the company would become 7 & 8 Dalhousie Square. Prior to that however, around the time of the Indian Mutiny in 1857 Richard Burrows Rodda left India and migrated to the United States with most of his extended family. Sadly Rodda passed away that year and so the company was taken over by William Henry Taylor, who was the brother of Rodda’s brother in law. R.B. Rodda & Company became primarily exporters/importers of guns and rifles based out of their Calcutta premises throughout the period up until Indian Independence in 1947, at which point the business was sold to Indian industrialists who diversified it away from the gun trade and into marine and other engineering work. During the period in which they were trading R.B. Rodda & Co. became well respected for the quality of the guns and rifles they sold, and their guns came to be used not only in India but throughout the European colonies such as the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia), Malaya (Malaysia), and French Indo China (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia), and Burma (Myanmar). This Snider action .577 2 ½” Black Powder Express rifle made by R B Rodda, prominent London and Calcutta gunmakers of dangerous game rifles is in excellent condition. At only 39” overall and with a 21” barrel, this rifle weighs in at a mere 6 1/3 lbs. The top of the barrel is marked "R B Rodda & Co. Gunmakers to His Excellency The Viceroy. London and Calcutta". The barrel and action have proofs. The neat "bar-in-wood" style lock plate is border engraved and displays the signature "R B Rodda & Co". This rifle is clearly intended to be agile for sudden use in dense undergrowth or forest, where a Tiger would only become visible at close range, although it is fitted with triple leaf sights out to 300 yards. The bore of this Express Rifle is mint, and the rifling shallow - probably to reduce the torque effect at the wrist that more aggressive rifling would cause in a sporter of this weight, compromising aim. In any case, a rifle this light firing an express load would kick like a mule! From around 1870 the .577 BPE cartridge was considered the best load for dangerous game. The famous big game hunter John "Pondoro" Taylor, in his book "African Rifles and Cartridges", described the .577 BPE as the most popular cartridge for shooting Tiger in India and that professional Lion hunters in Africa generally preferred it to anything else. This particular rifle is a sturdy and unpretentious practical hunting weapon, having been purpose built as an express rifle to accommodate the 2 ½” BPE cartridge, rather than the standard 2” round which the many converted military Sniders used. This is an antique obsolete calibre rifle and no licence is required to own it in the UK if retained as a part of a collection or display. The price includes UK delivery. Sn 21520

£1,375.00