Daniel Fraser stands out as one of the most respected of the Scottish gunmakers. This 22 Hornet double rifle with additional 20 gauge shotgun barrels is a beautiful example of Daniel Fraser’s workmanship.
Fast Facts
- Daniel Fraser of Edinburgh, Scotland, is recognized as one of the United Kingdom’s most highly respected gunmakers.
- Daniel Fraser was a friend of elephant hunter W.D.M. Bell – famous as the “Small-bore elephant hunter”.
- One of Daniel Fraser’s beautiful double-rifles chambered for the 22 Hornet is coming up for sale by Rock Island Auction.
Daniel Fraser & Company, of 4 Leith Street Terrace, Edinburgh, Scotland, established a reputation for the most extraordinary quality of their rifles and guns. They are famous for their bolt-action and double-rifles, their shotguns, and their unique and patented side-lever falling block single-shot rifles.
The company began back in 1872 when Daniel Fraser had completed his seven year gunmaking apprenticeship with Alexander Henry of Edinburgh. That first shop was simply called D. Fraser, Gunmaker which was expanded when his brother John joined him to take over the accounting role: so the name became D. & J. Fraser in 1878.
John Fraser left in 1889 and Daniel Fraser founded his company as Daniel Fraser & Company that year.
Daniel Fraser was highly respected in British shooting and hunting circles and counted W.D.M. Bell (i.e. Karamojo Bell) among his customers and friends.
W.D.M. Bell stands out as one of the greatest of the elephant hunters, famous for using small-bore rifles such as his Daniel Fraser 6.5×54 Mannlicher-Schönauer, of which he said “Of all the weapons I have owned, this was certainly the most beautiful.”
Bell subsequently migrated to a 275 Rigby (i.e. 7×57 Mauser) because the projectiles were more strongly constructed and produced more reliable penetration, an essential ingredient for using such a small-bore on elephant.
You’ll find our post on W.D.M. Bell if you click here.
Daniel Fraser passed away unexpectedly in December of 1901 leaving the business to his son Donald. Donald had a staff of around fifteen at that time and together they kept up the high standards of the company and even raised the bar somewhat.
In 1900, while Daniel Fraser was still running the business, the company made a 20 gauge shotgun. This shotgun was subsequently remodeled with the original 20 gauge barrels used as the basis on which to change the gun into a 22 Hornet double-rifle.
The original shotgun barrels were cut off just past the front of the action and fitted with rifle barrels. So the external size at the breech and over the action is the same as the 20 gauge shotgun barrels, but just ahead of the action the barrels are sharply tapered down to the profile of a sporting 22 Hornet.
The 25⅞ inch rifle barrels were furnished with a modest express quarter rib with single standing leaf rear-sight and ramp with foresight.
The rifle was also equipped with bases for optical sight mounting and was fitted with an Ajack 4x riflescope.
The Ajack riflescopes were quite common in Britain in the post-war 1950’s and had been standard issue for German and Swedish sniper rifles during the Second World War. They were made by Adolf Jackenroll of Berlin, Germany and were considered top quality.
In 1952 this rifle was made dual-purpose by the addition of a set of 28 2¾ inch 20 gauge barrels choked full/full made by Williams Ford
This rather interesting small game rifle is up for sale by Rock Island Auction up until October 3rd, 2025.
You can find the sale page with further details if you click here.
Rock Island Auction describe the condition of this item as follows:-
“Very fine overall as professionally restored, with nearly all of the finish, light handling evidence, and sharp checkering on the wood. Mechanically excellent. The extra barrels are also very fine. Case is good. The scope optics are clear.”
Picture credits: All pictures courtesy Rock Island Auction
Jon Branch is the founder and senior editor of Revivaler and has written a significant number of articles for various publications including official Buying Guides for eBay, classic car articles for Hagerty, magazine articles for both the Australian Shooters Journal and the Australian Shooter, and he’s a long time contributor to Silodrome.
Jon has done radio, television, magazine and newspaper interviews on various issues, and has traveled extensively, having lived in Britain, Australia, China and Hong Kong. His travels have taken him to Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Japan and a number of other countries. He has studied the Japanese sword arts and has a long history of involvement in the shooting sports, which has included authoring submissions to government on various firearms related issues and assisting in the design and establishment of shooting ranges.
