Yes David it is ,you cannot depress the barrel without it. If you do a Google search on the net for pheasant ,17/25 pdr etc you will come across several pictures, the ones with the pheasant showing a riveted cradle, un-modified shield , a full compliment of CES and missing the barrel counterweight was a gun that was used as a simulation for publicity. practically it would not operate correctly, the pheasants that were finally assembled for service were quite different and they all had welded cradles not riveted which G&J Weir developed to simplify and speed up production of.
Rob....................rnixartillery.
Last edited by rnixartillery; 27-07-19 at 20:58.
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