Here is a odd gun that I'd like to see in person and have it disassembled to see how it works. Heck I'd like to shoot it a few times.

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=525494253













There have been many failed avenues explored in gun making. Designs tried and found wanting, or too hard to make, unable to last the test of time. I found this one to be both interesting and a little crude at the same time. The wooded ribs were interesting, the third, forward trigger, to open the gun, the cocking indicators and top safety, the barrels with a mono block and rapid tapering of the tubes. Wonder how thin those barrels are? Is it a trigger plate action, side lock or box lock?

It is not a high quality gun but it does have a lot of interesting features used in other guns. I have read about this makers guns before but all those were 16 gauge guns and I wonder if this is not in fact a 16 gauge gun with that rapid barrel taper. Now I've been trying to remember where I read about it before. As I miss remember things these days it seems to me that only a few dozen were made and they were as I say all in 16 gauge. Ans is G. A. Sachs the smith behind Saxonia Gun Works? Three patent dates to follow but they could be from anybody and for any feature of the gun. I'm betting they cover the third trigger, the ribs and the action design but they could be for three entirely different reasons.

Unfortunately the owner has a very elevated ideal of it's value with a fairly high reserve or I'd buy it just for the novelty. Might anyways as Christmas is coming and I've been a very good boy this year. I bet this would be one of the few guns no one could claim to have in the family when I took it out to shoot a few rounds of skeet.

I like the Chopper lump Mono block and the wood rib. I wonder how many time this thing was discharged inadvertently while trying to open and pulled the wrong trigger.

I can't imagine why this never caught on!!

The designs of Gustav Adolf Sachs. The 1886 Patent he got when he was in Valley City in the Dakota Territory, Patent No. 353,432 granted Nov. 30, 1886 --

https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/pdfs/US353432.pdf

By 1893 he was in Eugene, Oregon, when he was granted U.S. Patent No. 495,639 on Apr. 18, 1893 --

https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/pdfs/US495639.pdf

I couldn't find an 1894 Patent for Sachs, but the 1894 date might refer to Willis Ostrander of San Francisco, Patent No. 531,132?

1894 and 1901 Sachs patents.






Breech-loading firearm. No. 674,284. Patented May I4, mm. a. SACHS ...



Grant US674284A • Gustav Adolf Sachs • Gustav Adolf Sachs

Priority 1898-05-27 • Filed 1898-05-27 Granted 1901-05-14
Patented May l4, l90l. G. A. SACHS. BREECH LOADING FIREARM. (Application filed May 27, 1898. Renew ed Oct. 20, 1900.) 3 Sheets-Sheet 2. ... Be it known that I, GUSTAV ADOLF SACHS, a citizen of the Empire of Germany, residing at Eugene, in the county of Lane and State of Oregon,have ...


Ejector for breakdown guns 2 Sheets-Sheet (No Model.) G. A. SACHS ...



Grant US523130A

Priority • Filed Granted 1894-07-17
Ejector for breakdown guns. 2 Sheets-Sheet (No Model.) G. A. SACHS. EJBGTOR PoR BREAKDOWN GUNS. Patented July 17, 1894. arrra rares nranr triton. GUSTAV ADOLIF SACI-IS, OF EUGENE, OREGON. EJECTOR FOR BREAKDOWN GUNS. SPECIFICATION forming part of ietters Patent No.

Thanks Daryl

https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/pdfs/US523130.pdf

https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/pdfs/US674284.pdf

The thought occurs, what kind of weird and wonderful custom could Dewey Vicknair make out of one of these?

I would buy it just to set it on the gun rack at my skeet range.

How about the game scene engraving?

When was the last Mearns quail you saw engraved on a gun Eightbore? I figure that was a $20-25 gun when made. It has the expected level of engraving.

It would be fun to take it out to the Skeet club and put on the rack. A set of companion tubes to shoot if the barrels are suspect. The extractor rides under the barrels which might make for a not so strong extractor setup. I think the design is interesting but that front action opening trigger could be a real nightmare from a safety viewpoint.

I'm thinking Dewey has, shall we say, "Higher" expectations of design elements for his projects than we see exhibited here. Not trying to speak for Dewey, but, a sow's ear is still a sow's ear, and a bull's scrotum is still, well, you hopefully get the point....


Best,
Ted

Well, I was hoping this oddity would sell for a meager price and then bring it to light here. But as long as it is in the open...

I have found a few newspaper articles circa 1915 and it seems the factory was up and going by 1894 but before any number of guns could be assembled the Bank called a Note of some $8000 dollars. All the money was tied up in materials. The Bank forclosed and the assets sold. The article stated that only 18 guns had been completed.

So gents, as a curio of early American doubles, how would you now set a price?

John

Looks a lot more like a California Valley or a Gambel's Quail to me. A gunmaker in Eugene, Oregon, more likely to know the California Valley Quail.

What's it worth? A few hundred dollars but not a thousand by any means. It is odd in its design and rare because they went out of business so quickly but not high quality or even that much of a clever design. If the bank had not called their note would they have built a thousand of this design? I doubt it. This was a dead end design from the start.

Wasn't there a financial panic about this same time? I bet the bank was fighting to remain solvent themselves. Or maybe the banker got gun number one and discharged it while trying to open it. Still I'd buy it if it was a reasonable reserve as a novelty. But as a rare or highly collectible gun it just lacks real value for big bucks. There were a hundred minor automobile makers who built a few cars and failed but you don't see them commanding big bucks. Sometime you fail for a reason.

Researcher you may be right as to the type of quail depicted. But at least it looks like a quail instead of a flying turnip masquerading as a duck.

It would have been very tough for me, were I alive in 1893 and looking to buy a fine arm, to decide between this gun and a Parker.
This, of course, assumes I were looking to use my purchase to propel a boat.

This gun seems to be a perfect example of how evolution seems to work. At one point, there's a change of environment that causes a whole lot of new mutations to come out. Then the more fit survive, and the ugly ducklings die out...