doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion German & Austrian Sporting Guns @ doublegunshop.com unsigned 12Ga Hammergun

I picked up this gun a few months ago and have been so busy that I haven't had time to do anything much except work. Well, things are slowing down so I figured I'd finally get around to going over it.

Nothing particularly special. 12ga, 32" Damascus Twist barrels. Gold and Silver inlays, full coverage engraving with game scenes, very nicely carved stock. After a light clean up and wipe down I could see the figure in the wood and it looks like it was PHENOMINAL once. I haven't been able to find any makers markings so far, none are visible under the barrels. Can't see any in the locks but they have so much gunk in them there may well be markings.

The issues are

• Rust on barrels and locks
• some inlay metal missing
• no trigger return springs
• no striker return springs
• LS hammer ear broken off and badly replaced by crack head monkeys
• LS lock will not cock.
• action lever gummed up/spring breaking
• small crack developing in cheekpiece
• crack in TG
• off face
• horn BP has wormholes
• hammers loose on tumbler
• LS tumbler screw missing, probably used by the monkeys to make a pipe.
• screws/pins boogered up a little
• century and a half of gunk in checkering
• it has a Setter on it

Since it was clearly a very nice gun once I figured I'd share. I plan to clean it up and address the issues and make it my quail and duck gun this year.

Well, with the Anson Pushrod forend clasp type, it would be post 1872. Horn triggerguard bow makes me think German but the lock/frame interface leans toward Austrian. Can you post a few images of the flats and the water table?

Kind Regards,

Raimey
rse

Hey Ellen- I put down my Schnapps for the nonce and my eagle eyes show a very slight radius or bow just at the rear of the front barrel lug, but not at the rear lug- or is it just some "Adler-scheisse" on my Dell computer TV screen gizmo?? Sure looks like the front lug is slightly different in that area from the rear one- what's your read on this??

Otherwise, how was the play, Mrs. Lincoln?



3 inch steel loads should be just the ticket for those pesky ducks.

Setting aside my bad attempts at jokes, is that a Greener crossbolt there?

The Damascus pattern I think I've seen before and recall it as being a "higher-quality" one, but I'm no expert on that.

The rust on the barrels - inside and out?

Might be a good idea to get tubes b/c if the bores have been treated as well as the rest of it, chances are honing them will leave not a lot.

Sure, as long as you fire the first shot. lol

it will be brass shells and BP for this girl. I have another decent German 1880ish damascus 16ga that I've been using and it eats BP loads also. I've been using Hevi Shot(?) for the non toxic loads in my ML. You know, the stuff that is priced as though it's made from Panda smuggled out of China. Haven't tried it in the breech loaders yet but I'm sure I can come up with a good recipe.

The bores are actually in much better shape than the rest of it. some pitting just down stream of the chambers but not too bad actually. It still has a fair bit of meat to clean up nicely. I could have swore I put up proof pics. I'll redo it tomorrow.

Oh and yes, Greener cross bolt

All I can tell you about it is that I believe it's definitely worth putting back to work....and I like it!! Good luck with it, sir!! The longer I look at old German guns and rifles the more I like them!

The marks are very faint. That's the best pics I could get. I think once I clean up some of the corrosion I will be able to do a rubbing and get a more clear picture.

For sure Belgian sourced 12 bore and possibly by a firearms merchant outside of Belgium. Hopefully PeteM will stop by to comment.

Kind Regards,

Raimey
rse

Oh yeah. I knew the proofs were Belgian. But Belgian barrels were widely used.