doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Birmingham Proof Marks

Is it possible to tell when this gun was manufactured?
http://s659.photobucket.com/albums/uu315/corkdecoy/?action=view&current=Untitled.jpg

From the proof marks the best I can say is between 1925 and 1954. If you have a name and address on the top rib I might be able to narrow it further for you. regards. Lagopus.....

There may be a date stamp on the barrel just in front of the flats Sort of like crossed pikes over a letter.Am I mistaken or is it a damascus hammer gun? Midland made damascus barreled hammer guns up untill 1939.I would doubt any were made after this.

Birmingham Proof House Private View Marks are available from 1921 to 2001 in my records. Letters A thru V correspond to 1921-22 thru 1940-41. The letter will be found in the upper portion of an X shape formed by crossed swords. The lower portion of the X will have a number corresponding to the Inspector concerned.Note that a reference refers to the X as formed by crossed spears, but the stamp on some guns I viewed recently looked more like crossed swords.

From Jan, 1, 1950 through 1974 you can find AB, BB, CB etc thruough ZB, corresponding to the years. These letters will be found on the two sides of the X formed by crossed swords, while the number for the inspector will be found as above.

From Jan 1, 1975 thru 1984 the same two letters starting with AB and ending with KB will be found in a circle with the inspector's number just below the letters in the circle.

From Jan 1, 1985 through Dec. 2001 the marks of LC through ZC indicate years through 1997. 1998 Starts iwth AD and ends with DD for 2001. These letters are found in the left and right side of the X formed by crossed swords, but with no inspector number.

I assume 2002 corresponds to ED and 2003 to FD,etc., but am not sure on this.

Interesting. Greener says that the English stopped producing damascus in 1903. I wonder if they were importing from Belgium? The 1939 certainly sounds like it. After that the infrastructure was destroyed in the war.

Pete

Pete ,you are right on that. There were of course some left over stock but it was of generaly low quality. As yet we have not heard if the gun in question is damascus.

Daryl, thanks a lot for posting infomation decoding the crossed "X" on these guns. I personally think your data needs to go into the FAQ section of this board. I've printed it out for safekeeping.

I thought one of my Birmy guns, a D. Crockart, was built in the thities but is without the "X" so at least I now know it's much earlier. Another, a Webley turns out to be from 1959....and so on.

Thanks

Many of the date stamps, that were on the tubes, were not that well impressed. As a result after the barrels were polised for black they became indistinct. Just out of curiosity what is the gun in question?

Gun is a Midland Gun Company sidelock.

I have a few Midland Gun Company guns that I can date from the proof code mark and correspond to the serial number. As far as I know their guns were numbered sequentially. Records no longer exsist. If you have the serial number I may be able to bracket the date a little more accurately. Lagopus.....