A butt-cylinder, all steel , barrel cocking air pistol made in .177 calibre only by Lincoln Jeffries (Junior) and Co Ltd the son of the famous George Lincoln Jeffries inventor of the innovative underlever air rifle which in conjunction with BSA revolutionised air rifle design in the period just before the first world war. The company was based in Steelhouse Lane so right in the heart of the Birmingham gun trade. The pistol first appeared around 1921 and remained in production up until the late 1920s. There is some anecdotal evidence that a few examples may have been available as early as 1911 the date of the first patent although that patent refers to a design in which the trigger unit remains attached to the barrel during cocking. All examples known to date have the trigger separate from the barrel so corresponding to the 1921 patent. Although only something like 1000 of these pistols were ever produced surviving examples still turn up on a fairly regular basis at Auctions and Arms Fairs.
The top of the barrel is marked “THE LINCOLN” Air Pistol and on the right side of the barrel at the breech it reads “Best English Make”. Also on the right side of the breech moulding at the back of the cylinder near the top is stamped the Patent No 181277. These pistols are affectionately known among collectors as “grease guns” for obvious reasons. They would certainly win no prizes in a beauty contest , but they are extremely well made and use no pins in their construction, only machine screws. However, the pistols like most Lincoln Jeffries products were acid -blued resulting in a blue finish with relatively poor durability, so it is rare to find one with more than a residue of the original finish remaining. The large knurled knob which allows the cocking link to be rapidly disengaged and the gun folded in half was a nice touch , and must have been very useful when carrying such an ungainly gun around.
A genuine boxed example has yet to be found, and it would almost certainly have been packaged in its taken-down state. There were a number of interesting variants of the pistol some extremely rare and possibly prototypes although the “Standard” remains the most likely model to be encountered. There is a strong rumour that the Lincoln had a significant influence of the very successful German Walter LP53 design which followed sometime later.
Although the pistol does have a rifled barrel, I have found it quite difficult to obtain reasonable groups at distances greater than 6 yds but it is great fun to shoot.
LEFT HAND SIDE OF STANDARD LINCOLN
RIGHT HAND SIDE OF STANDARD LINCOLN
ACTION OPEN NOTE KNURLED KNOB TO ALLOW EASY DISASSEMBLY
Regards Brian
