Any guesses on this double

[peter nap]

At last weekends gunshow, I ran across an antique sword vendor who had an old shotgun. We've had snow storms almost every day and the show was empty (City People Can't drive in snow):bigsmyl2:

Anyway, he hadn't even made gas money so I picked the old thing up for $50.00.

It could be made shootable pretty easily and I wanted a Double ML shotgun.

Looking at the proofmarks on the barrel (The only markings on the gun) it is a twist steel Belgium made barrel.

That's the end of the certainty.

Some Creighton has refinished the stock and cleaned the furniture.

The engraving looks cheesey.

The inside of the stock is black Oil Soak wood, typical of an old stock.

Screws are OLD.

The tumblers in the lock were not well finished. Both half cock notches were so shallow, it could be fired while in half cock.

The in letting is so/so.

Aside from the baarrel, I'd swear it was a very old kit gun.
Any Ideas about this thing???????////

The hammer screws are new. I put them in when I rebuilt the locks. It came with the typical round head screws seen on most double locks.



http://www.photos.oldva.org/albums/userpics/old3.jpg

[northmn]

Usually one finds a bit of rot in the old guns. The locks alone are worth $50.00. If you can try to put a bore light down the barrel to see if she is badly pitted. Some of the old Belgian imports are really hard to track down. ML shotguns were made well into the 1870's.

Northmn

[waksupi]

It seems I have seen them before, but can't remember any info on them. I believe you are right, it is probably a kit gun of some sort.

[10 ga]

Looks like something that might have come out of "DIXIE G W" some years back. You might look at some of their old catalogs or see if they have any info. 10 ga

[peter nap]

I did get a bore light down in it. I was especially concerned with the breech area. I've seen some that rusted there and then got a gunk buildup that made it look fine. I used a plug scraper on it then a bore brush with Eds Red and spun in a drill. After the umpteenth flushing, it looks good. Certainly not pristine, but good.

I'm going to run a couple of proof loads through it before I'm happy.

I talked to Dennis Glazener about it today and he thought it was 1870-90. He's already talking about getting out the skeet thrower.

[peter nap]

Looks like something that might have come out of "DIXIE G W" some years back. You might look at some of their old catalogs or see if they have any info. 10 ga

Would Dixie have used a Damascus Barrel?

[waksupi]

I doubt DGW would have used damascus. I guess the refinish job made made me think it was a newer type gun.

[northmn]

Dixie would have likely marked it. The Damascus barrels seem to imply an older gun. There were a few imports from a company called Century Arms a few years ago that were made in India and very poor, but I doubt if its one of them. If Dennis has seen it up close I would bet he knew.

Northmn