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Safari Club International 2025

John Dickson & Son recently returned from Nashville after attending the hunting extravaganza that is the Safari Club International Convention. The show was a huge success for Dicksons', with massive interest in our fine Scottish guns and rifles. Dickson's Managing Director, J-P Daeschler, attended the show and got the chance to meet customers old and new and put the spotlight on Scotland's oldest gunmaker.  For those that couldn't make it this time, the show will be back in Nashville next year, where it will likely be even bigger and better.

Vintage Gun Inventory Update

We hold the largest selection of pre-owned Dickson Round-Action guns and whether you are looking to grow your collection or upgrade your current sporting gun, John Dickson & Son has a superb range of pre-owned vintage guns from other Scottish gun and rifle makers.  All guns have been prepared through our workshop making them available for immediate sale and delivery, and working with our export partners we can facilitate sending your purchase to a nominated firearms dealer in your country. We have consignments leaving for the USA on a monthly basis.  

We have just added a couple of interesting Round-Actions to our inventory:

• John Dickson & Son Round-Action - Built 1894, 12 gauge, 29in steel barrels, beautiful stock
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• John Dickson & Son Round-Action - Built 1895, 12 gauge, NEW barrels, 2 3/4in chambers
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We also have a few interesting Scottish guns currently going through the workshop being prepared for sale:

• Ultra rare MacNaughton Edinburgh gun - Built 1889, 24 gauge, one of the very few 24 gauge guns.
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• John Dickson & Son Round-Action - Built 1894, 12 gauge, 29in newer steel barrels, cased
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• John Dickson & Son Round-Action - Built 1901, 12 gauge, 28in sleeved barrels
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• John Dickson & Son Round-Action - Built 1904, 12 gauge, newer steel barrels, 2 3/4in chambers
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• John Dickson & Son Round-Action - Built 1904, 12 gauge, 29in damascus barrels
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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 so get in touch if you are looking for something specific.

We are busily preparing some fine Scottish guns to take to The Southern Classic Side by Side Championship and Exhibition, which takes place at Deep River Sporting Clays, Sanford, North Carolina, April 24th to 27th. We are again holding our Scottish Round-Action Challenge and bringing a beautiful Ballantyne foundry cast bronze of a red Grouse for the winner. You can find out more about this great event here

Will you be taking this trophy home?

Monty's .577 Round-Action

Dickson Round-Action double rifles are few and far between, according to the Dickson archives, only fifteen Round-Action double rifles have been built between 1884 and 1912. Calibres typically .400, .450 and .500, but two were made in .577 and one of those was fitted with a sidelever. This rifles whereabouts had been unknown until 2020, when it was released out of a collection in the USA, but quickly finding a new home with a Dickson Owners Club member.   

The .577 sidelever Round-Action rifle was delivered to Colonel M. G. Gerard in 1884, one of several guns and rifles that Gerard would order from Dickson's between 1869 and 1893. Pictured above is Colonel Gerard proudly holding his Dickson rifle whilst stationed in India. General Sir Montagu Gilbert Gerard was a decorated soldier who had served in Afghanistan, Egypt and India. Gerard was devoted to all forms of sport and recorded his experiences in “Leaves from the Diaries of a Soldier and a Sportsman, 1865-1885” which was published in 1903. 

On the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese war in 1904 he went out to Manchuria as chief British attache in General Kuropatkin's army; but his health succumbed to the rigours of the campaign, and he died of pneumonia at Irkutsk on 26 July 1905 on his way home from Kharbin. A requiem mass was sung at the catholic church of St. Catherine's, St. Petersburg, at which both the Tsar Nicholas II and King Edward VII were present. The body was subsequently conveyed to Scotland, and buried at Airdrie on 8 September 1905.

Diggory Hadoke, author of The Vintage Gun Journal, recently got the opportunity to put Monty's .577 through its paces.