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Can some one identify this old rusty wall hanger?
gnprts
Member Posts: 350 ✭✭
Please identify this old double with side break down lever with very little marking. Thanks
Comments
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.