Product Details
W.W. GREENER
A GOOD 14-BORE 'GREENER POLICE GUN MARK III' MARTINI-ACTION SHOTGUN, serial no. 3894,
26in. nitro barrel for the14-bore Greener special bottle-necked cartridge, bored approx. 1/2 choke, plain blacked Martini action, stamped 'W.W. GREENER. MAKER. PATENT No. 463628/35' and 'GREENER POLICE GUN MARK III.', retaining a good amount of original finish, 14in. butt-stock, iron buttplate with central hinged trapdoor, full-length fore-end, iron barrel band, sling swivels, weight 7lb. 16oz.
Other Notes: After W.W.I, the Egyptian Government sought a weapon suitable for arming their police force. W.W. Greener of Birmingham won the contract with their submission of a handy, smoothbore Martini actioned shotgun with a full length wood fore-end, which became known as the Greener Mark I/14 with the "14" referring to the bore size. One of the clever features of the new shotgun was that it used an odd sized 14 1/2-bore straight sided shot cartridge which prevented the weapon's use with commercially available shotgun ammunition. Thus, if the weapon fell into the wrong hands, it couldn't be used against the Egyptian Police. Greener referred to this cartridge as "14 bore for use in Mark I guns". Kynoch were chosen to load the cartridges and most were produced with smokeless powder, but some have been noted with black powder loads. By 1922, over 30,000 'Greeners' had been supplied to the Egyptian Government but in the 1930s, it was discovered that stolen Mark Is were being used against the authorities by wrapping a thick piece of paper around a standard 16 gauge cartridge in order to size them up to 14 1/2 gauge. Greener answered this problem with the Greener Police Gun Mark III, Patent Number 463628/35. The Mark III could be ordered in three different chamberings: the original 14 1/2 bore Mark I cartridges, standard 12-bore 2 3/4in. cartridges and a special bottle-necked round sized .782in. diameter at the base, necked down to .740in. at the tip with an overall length of 2 7/8in.. The new bottle-necked form of the cartridge was enough to prevent the weapon's unauthorized use, but Greener went a step further by adding a large annular groove in the base of the cartridge. When a round is chambered, two lugs protruded from the face of the breechblock and engaged the annular groove in the base of the cartridge, meaning that the gun could only be fired if the correct, grooved ammunition was used.
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Estimate £300-500
Sold as an exempt item under Section 58 (2) of the 1968 Firearms Act, to be held as a curiosity or ornament