doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Charles Daly Project Gun

I am thinking of buying this Daly 10 bore project. It seems tight although well used and needs some TLC. Does anyone know the initials on the bbls. They do not have HAL, but RS on them.
What is a reasonable value?

What's the condition of the barrels? Anything missing or broken? Is the wood sound?
Jim

The wood is sound, the locks seem crisp, the barrels need rebrowning, the barrels have light pitting.Overall sound and tight.Nice wood under the dirt and grime.

If it had a Jones Underlever it would be a mirror image of an early Lindner Daly. Even the pin configuration is the same as it is a bar in wood type. Components of the early Lindners were purported to have been sourced from Sauer. Does it have a serial number in the 30k range? I'd be interested to see if the locks have any stamps. Any marks on the watertable? What does the forend look like? Does it have a long top tang?

I'd call "all in" or "shoot the moon" with Robert Schlegelmilch having put the initals "R.S." on the tubes. And it was probably early on say in the late 1870s well before he founded Suhler Waffenfabrik in circa 1900. Ernst Wilhelm Schelgelmilch owned several companies such as Caspar Schlegelmilch who were barrel makers and I think he owned Thieme(Adolph) & Schlegelmilch(Louis - head gunsmith at Spandau), which began in the early 1850s(1852?) and who made similar hammer doubles but the ones I've seen had a different pin configuration. Reinhold Schlegelmilch might be an option but I don't know much about his operation but Ernst Steigleder is noted as to have purchased Reinhold's business from his heirs post WWI. There were other "R.S." makers in Suhl but all like Richard Schuler were at the earliest pre-WWI.

Kind Regards,

Raimey
rse

I'd say 4 to 5 hundred would be a fair price considering wear/condition and the gun being a low grade without any "proofing".

I might add I've only handled one 10 ga. Daly hammer a little higher grade than that gun (For sale at Barnetts) and it didn't impress me as much of a gun.

Raimey,
The Serial number is exactly 3000 and no marks I do not believe on the Watertable.

I'm suprised at the serial number (3000) of this gun as that is in the serial number range normally associated with Lindner made and marked Daly guns. As Raimey mentions the R.S. initials are common on Prussian Dalys, but whose initials they are has not yet been definitely determined. They show up on Lindner and non-Lindner Prussian Dalys over a period of several decades. (As Raimey also mentions, the post-WWI Daly marked with RS are thought to be associated with Robert Schuler, but not the earlier guns.)

The location of the stamp is most usually where this R.S. stamp is - just ahead of the barrel flats. Other initials are also commonly found include E.E. and a few others. Some, including me, have hypothesized that they represent the barrel man's or finishers mark. It seems a logicial location for such a mark and the intiials vary over time indicating more than one person doing this job. But again, this is just a guess.



Ken

With the 3000, it would be in the mid 1880s?? Just my guess, but I think the initials were a means of payment and as mechanization and technology permeated the gunmaking industry, tubes, and parts in general, were much closer to their final form and the machine/device/furnace couldn't stamp it's initials on the tubes. Or the slot of a technician monitoring the machine began instead of actual hand labour. And one starts to see the initials near the forend lug. At this point in time I'm not sure how they kept track of barrel/tube sourcing. I've looked and looked for a Schilling fella with the first initial of R, but no joy to date. In the 1880s on Lindner Daly guns I've seen at least the following initials:
R.S.
J.W.
W.M.(or possibly M.W.)

If anyone has seen the initials "H.U.F." on a pattern welded tube of a Lindner Daly, I'd be interested in the info.

Kind Regards,

Raimey
rse

Raimey: I have a toplever hammer 10 gauge Daly marked: "Charles Daly, Damascus Barrels" on the wide cancave top rib. The only marks on the barrel flats is "162" & "392" on the underside of the left barrel next to the flat. The top rib has a "doll's head" extension. The bar action locks are marked "Charles Daly" with some arabesque scrolls. The only marking on the watertable is "162" The only mark on the fore arm iron is "62" There is a mark "EU" at the bottom of the "doll's head recess" On the silver stock oval are the initials "W.F.H."

What is your opinion of this one? Anyone else is certainly welcome to chime in as well.

Best Regards, George

Raimey,

I believe you are correct. It was not uncommon for a maker to out source orders to independent workman. These "cottage workers" would all be considered as part of the guild. There was usually a broker who handled these types of transactions. The workman would be paid piece rates. So stamping one's initials was a way of insuring that your work could be identified and you were paid.

Pete