I have a Double barrel shotgun with hammers. The apparatus that the hammers hit have been taken out. A gun dealer here in Spokane, WA says that is not a big deal. He was impressed with the shape the gun was in. It has a beautiful walnut stock and beautiful engraving on the metal. On the side it has Clark and Sneider engraved and on the bottom CE Sneider. One gun dealer could not find any proof marks and figures it was made in the US. He did not know anything about the shotgun but did say there was a CE Sneider that made hand guns. Do you have any information. The Shotgun was given to my father as a gift by some friends whose family came from the East Coast. It was his friends grandfathers gun and their family was wealthy which would make me guess that it was a very good gun made by a good gunmaker when their family acquired it. Any information you might be able to provide would be welcome. All of the people who would know about the shotgun have passed away.
I started a new thread for this topic...
Charles Edward Sneider worked in Baltimore, MD from 1860-1889. He held at least 20 patents for cartridges, hand guns and breech loaders. Most of the early patents were used by Poultney & Trimble. With Duncan C. Clark as Clark & Sneider, 1873-1884. Sneider Arms made small quantities of the Sneider patent guns.
Missing hammers is a big deal, as the gun can almost never be sold as a collector grade example. The wealth of the buyer does not translate into an expensive gun.
Pete
