Latest News

Besøkende fra Norge - Visitors From Norway

We recently enjoyed a special visit from the British Gunowners Club Norway as part of their trip to Scotland. The group are keen enthusiasts for British guns and most are Dickson and MacNaughton gun owners, the visit to Dickson's very much a pilgrimage to the home of these fine gunmakers. The group enjoyed a tour of the facilities and an overview of the business interlaced with a number of fascinating stories relating to the companies 204 year history. We hope they can return with more members of the British Gunowners Club Norway in the future.

Vintage Gun Inventory Update

We have just added a few interesting and rare Scottish guns to our Vintage Gun Inventory, including:

• Alex Martin 'Ribless' 12 gauge boxlock ejector - a great lightweight gun fitted with ribless barrels
• William McCall 12 gauge boxlock ejector - new long stock, excellent newer steel barrels
  
• John Dickson & Son 12 gauge boxlock Non-ejector - tidy little gun with good provenance
• James MacNaughton 12 gauge 'Edinburgh' Round-Action - A rare example in great condition
• John Dickson & Son 12 gauge Round-action - Dickson Single Trigger with long stock

We also have a number of interesting Scottish guns currently going through the workshop being prepared for sale and they will be added to our website shortly:

• John Dickson & Son 12 gauge Round-Action - 1937 Centenary model, 1 of 5 special guns engraved by Harry Kell
• John Dickson & Son 12 gauge Round-Action - re-manufactured in 2024, an 'as new' gun
• John Dickson & Son 12 gauge Round-Action - early 1893 action, indicators, long stock, 27in sleeved barrels
  
• John Dickson & Son 12 gauge Round-Action - classic 1901 action, 28in sleeved barrels 
• John Dickson & Son 12 gauge hammer gun - Scott pigeon action, 2 3/4in chambers, 29in newly sleeved barrels, made in 1886
• John Dickson & Son 12 gauge hammer gun - 2 3/4in chambers, 30in newly sleeved barrels, made in 1877
• John Dickson & Son 12 gauge hammer gun - 2 3/4in chambers, made for Charles Gordon in 1890
• John MacPherson 12 gauge boxlock Non-ejector - 2 3/4in chambers, wide rib and heavy choked 30in barrels 

If we can assist with any further information on the guns above, please get in touch using our contact form  here - Please note that the vast majority of our guns find new homes before they even make it to our website.

John Dickson & Son at the Vintage Gunners Cup 2024

John Dickson & Son are very pleased to announce that they will be attending 'Vintagers' In October for a celebration of the 26th Vintage Gunners Cup World Side-by-Side shotgun Championship and Exhibition. 

Hosted by our friends at Hopkins Hunting & Sporting Clays, this will be a great gathering of side by side vintage shotgun enthusiasts, and as Dickson's is a sponsor of this event, we will be in attendance with a fine selection of Scottish vintage guns and Dickson accessories for sale. A member of the Dickson team will be in attendance and happy to discuss all things Dickson, MacNaughton, Fraser, Henry, Martin & Mortimer.  We hope to see you in Maryland, it will be a great event and not to be missed!

An Amazing Coincidence

Every year we receive many enquiries from around the world regarding Dickson guns and the current custodians looking to find out more about their gun - the investigation starts with the serial number and usually turns up some information on the gun in question. 

But, what if the serial number was fictional, could it turn up a real gun?

Lars Mytting is the award-winning author of Norwegian Wood and The Bell in the Lake. An international bestseller and longlisted for the Dublin Literary Prize, 'The Sixteen Trees of the Somme' tells the story of Edvard and starts at his family’s tree farm in Norway, where he was raised by his grandfather. The death of Edvard’s parents when he was three has always been a mystery but he knows that the fate of his grandfather’s brother, Einar, is somehow connected. One day a coffin is delivered to the farm for his grandfather, long before the grandfather’s death - a meticulous, beautiful, and unique piece of craftsmanship with the hallmarks of a certain master craftsman - raising the thought that Einar isn’t dead after all. Edvard is now driven to unravel the mystery of his parents’ death. Following a trail of clues from Norway to the Shetland Islands to the battlefields of France and sixteen ancient walnut trees colored by poison gas in World War I, Edvard ultimately discovers a very unusual inheritance in the shape of Round-Action gun from John Dickson & Son, the renowned gunmaker in Edinburgh.

To make the story convincing, the author writes of a fictional visit to Dickson's shop in Edinburgh to investigate the origins of Edvards Dickson Round-Action gun. The author generated a fictional serial number, No. 5572, fictional delivery date and fictional customer.

Lars Mytting recently visited Dickson's as part of the British Gunowners Club Norway's special visit to Scotland and naturally was curious to see if such a gun, No. 5572, did exist. The relevant leather-bound delivery book was retrieved and placed on a display table, sharing the space with a fine pair of Dickson's Round-Actions in their double case, the lid emblazoned 'Major H. R. Brown  Cameron Highlanders'. Dickson's Managing Director, J-P Daeschler, searched and found the number. There was indeed an entry recorded for No. 5572 and it was actually a Round-Action gun - it could easily have been a sidelock gun or boxlock gun. 'No. 5571/5572 Pair of Best Patent Hammerless Ejector guns delivered August 1903 for Major Brown'.

J-P Daeschler was then able to deliver a shocking revelation - The fictional gun written about twelve years ago was now actually sitting on the same table as the record book being reviewed by the author.

All we can now say is that it must have been fate for the author to cross paths with his fictional Dickson on his first visit to Dickson's and we hope Lars Mytting can write the next chapter of ownership for the real Dickson No. 5572.