doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Belgian clunker collection

By accident I have the start of belgian clunker collection. I found matching .410 and 28 gauge belgian hammerguns. I had to have them, as I already had the matching 12. All 3 in excellent condition with little to no use ever. For guns made in 1880's they are in remarkable shape.

.410 has 26" barrels
28 gauge 28" barrels
12 gauge 30" barrels

All have same pin placement, same hammers, most of the same markings, all have sling swivels etc.

.410 & 28 say Wm Parkhurst on 1 lock and machine made on the other. 12 has machine made but no Parkhurst.

I know that these are not particularly valuable, but does anyone besides me think that it might be pretty cool to track down a 20, 16, & 10 and have a complete set of clunkers?
Kinda like a collection of Ford Pinto's or Gremlins or Pacers etc. You get the idea. Just curious if I'm the only one to think this way.

Well it's not up MY alley, but I can definitely see the appeal. In fact, the impetus to get this collection complete has the same seeds that drive a man with money to want a complete collection of certain Purdeys, or ______fill in the blank. A good friend of mine, when we were sharing a house in Amherst in the early 80's happened to fall onto a personal ad for a Fender Coronado guitar. Fender made a "less expensive" line of electric guitars in the 60's, the Coronado, the Antigua - there might have been another line. But that got him fixated on getting more, and he did, and you know the rest of the story. Now, older and with more money, he's got a whole bunch of late 60's -early 70's Triumph motorcycles. It goes on and on, and so it will go with you in one way or another, for the rest of your life. Hey, we gotta do SOMETHING to keep us sane. You are definitely not alone. (Note that I didn't mention my own particular collecting passions.)

Ironman;
I say go for it. With the .410 & 28 already you should have the hardest ones to find. You of course probably got lucky on finding a high condition 12. May be harder to find the rest in the condition of these three. A lot of these in the larger gauges at that point in time were used pretty heavy.
Outside of shotguns my other main collecting interest is antique & vintage sewing machines. My oldest to date is an 1862 Wheeler & Wilson.

Parkhurst shotguns were made in England by J.P. Clabrough and later in Belgium by Neumann, Janssen & Dumoulin ( SPI ). In 1899 Neumann Freres, Janssen fils & Cie, and F. Dumoulin & Cie formed Syndicat des Pieces Interchangables. This was done to standardize the manufacturing tolerances of sporting arms. Shortly after forming, they turned it over to Fabrique Nationale. Not surprising as many of them had been founders of FN.

Parkhurst is a brand name used by H&D Folsom Arms Co. They were sold in the Schoverling, Daly & Gales catalogs. If you go here, you will find an image Researcher posted of the catalog. It shows a 28ga for $10 and a 44XL (early American version of the .410) for $10.80.

http://www.doublegunshop.com/forums/ubbt...true#Post182980

Here are the Belgian proof marks.
http://damascus-barrels.com/Belgian_All_Proofmarks.html

If they are in decent condition, I say "Go for it."

Pete

I think it would be fun to have a JABC Trap & Skeet event one a year. Just think of the excitment in watching participants acually shooting some of these rattling clunkers. I will volunteer to keep score as long as this can be done from at least 50 yards behind the firing line!!
Jim