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Can some one identify this old rusty wall hanger?
gnprts
Member Posts: 345 ✭✭
Please identify this old double with side break down lever with very little marking. Thanks
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Are there any markings on the top of the barrels, perhaps on the rib? From your pics about all I can tell is that it has Belgium proofmarks. There were quite a few sellers that put their names on Belgium guns so without more info that is the best I can do. Bob
Many of those Belgium doubles were labeled falsely 'W Richards' Damascus barrels, generally considered unsafe to shoot.
The circle with ELG * is a proof mark 1811-1892, Liege (Belgium) for black powder proof rifles. There are 3 proof marks shown and the next is the Arrow on top of the circle which really is a four-sided tower with a post sticking up, that one is, since 1853, Liege (Belgium), an inspectors mark for firearms "Perron". And the very top proof mark, a crown over an R (fuzzy) is Liege (Belgium), since 1852, rifled arms defense for smokeless proof parabellum pistols.
The picture below which shows a stylized S, but is really a fancy capital EL, but reads since 1852 Liege (Belgium) provisional black powder proof for breech loading guns and rifled barrels. The explanation for the proof marks are what I found and can assume the gun was made around 1892.
The 18 mark is unknown.
Belgian guild gun - external hammer - side-lever opening - side-lock - extractor - 12 gauge (18mm = 12 gauge) - right barrel (18.4) - Modified @ .7087 - left barrel (18) - Cylinder @ .7244
I have no idea why the left barrel has the more open choke - unless some of the measurement numbers are washed out.
Best Regards - AQH
Edited: side-lever opening - not under-lever - don't know what I was thinking at the moment.
Thanks to all for your help I appreciate it.
Wild speculation, maybe it was sold where driven or decoyed game was common and your second shot would be closer, unlike the usual flushing game chokes.
"Hawk Carse" - I would have expected the other barrel to be 'full' - but I have never been in a 'driven' game situation as you describe - BUT - BUT - BUT - the choke dimensions would be correct for the situation you have described. For all of the quail hunts in the 'wire grass' area of Florida and Alabama - and the pheasant hunts in Nebraska and South Dakota I have ever had the pleasure of participating in - the second barrel should be 'full' for flushing game with my nephew's Brittney Spaniels.
Best Regards - AQH
Like I said, speculation over what somebody was buying long ago.
Elmer Keith said he got a double whose front trigger fired the tighter choke barrel first, and traded it off so as to not have to remember the nonstandard layout.