doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Just sharing my Geco hammer gun . . .

I really don't have a question about this one. Just thought I'd share . . .

This is a 12 gauge German made hammer gun. I'm not entirely sure of the vintage but I'd say it's pre-World War II given that the stock and barrels are marked "Germany" and not West Germany (it's too old to be post-unification). It was exported by GECO, but I'm not sure of the maker. It has Krupp steel nitro-proofed barrels. Appears to be built on a 13 gauge tube set. It's clearly a base model as it lacks any engraving or other embellishment. Chambers are pretty darn close to 2-3/4.

The sad thing is that it has a pretty bad area of corrosion/pitting on the outside of the left barrel, just ahead of the chamber. It appears to be perhaps a blood stain that was allowed to rust during gun storage. I tell myself the gun is safe to shoot -- and have, in fact, shot light target loads. The walls of the barrels/chambers seem plenty thick and the pitting is no deeper than fancy engraving would be. In fact, most of the pitting is no deeper than the GECO stamp on the barrels. FWIW, I sent it to a well-respected barrel smith to have the chokes opened and instructed him not to do anything if he was concerned about the barrel integrity. The barrels came back opened up with no comment about the the pitting so I'm assuming it passed the master's muster.

The gun handles very nicely. Just a sweet shooting, easy pointing gun. I've thought about selling it because I've since acquired a couple of nicer/better hammer guns but the thing is just too sweet to let go.

Anyway, I shot some photos so I thought I'd share . . .

I admire your camera work.
Thanks for sharing.

Bladeswitcher,
First of all, I agree with you that the gun was made for export, likely to an English speaking country. Geco is Gustav Genschow and was a pretty large retailer. The 12 in a circle shows that it was chambered for the standard 12ga shells. At the time, this would have been about 67mm or 2 5/8". In my experience, 13ga tubes are more common in 12ga guns than other sizes. The gun was clearly proofed in Suhl, but it has the look of a French or Belgian gun. Imported guns were often proofed using the "view" proof (crown U),w/o other proofs( the crown W, shows the barrels were choked).
Mike

Nice, I enjoy my GECO hammerless.
German hardware store guns
Thank you for sharing
Mike

Looks just like several of my Bayard guns by Pieper out of Belgium. Meaning the locks pins frame ect.... I love mine

Looks like a fun hammer gun for Black Powder clay shooting, and hunting. It will never be valuable, being a simple hunter's gun and damaged by pitting, but oh so useable and fun to shoot. There is a lot of drop to the stock, requiring a "head up" shooting style. You don't always need an expensive gun to have a blast afield.

The photos may be deceiving. This one fits pretty well actually.

GeCo had a huge mail-order business that between the wars would send a gun anywhere, including the Soviet Union. The quality was quite good for the money. Old German gunmakers believed in keeping the bore diameter undersized (and forcing cones short) - they believed this helped to prevent powder gas leaks around the wad, improving both patterns and velocity. Nearly 99% 12 gauge German guns from XX century were bored like that. Apparently, they also came from the factory with X-Full chokes in both barrels, in belief that the owner will go to the local gunsmith and have the chokes open to desired size.

This example was made in Liege & experienced proof in Suhl.


Cheers,

Raimey
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