doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Gathering Info on Old Muzzleloader

This was my grandpa's or g grandpa's gun. It is double barrel, twist barrel, percussion with 32" barrels. On bottom of barrels is "I H & S 12". There are proof marks on both barrels that appear to match Birmingham marks. I know nothing about muzzle loaders but I can search the Web and my guess is this is a Isaac Hollis and Son barrel. The odd thing is that the locks are engraved with the name A P Gemmer. There is considerable engraving on the gun and I'm sure it looked fine when it was new. I would just like to pin down as much detail as possible on the gun before I pass it on to my son. For many years I assumed that it was a J P Gemmer gun since we live not far from St. Louis but that now seems unlikely. Any insight you folks can provide would be greatly appreciated. I do have pictures but I don't know how to make them available to you. I will try if you think it would help.

Paul Robinson

Gemmer was a seller of a lot of outdoor things as I recall. He dealt in firearms, including Sharps, out of Colorado. I've seen a few doubles with Gemmer on them and they did look like they originated in Birmingham. Your Hollis guess would have been my guess, too.

Thanks Daryl - Is it likely that A P Gemmer was the gunmaker and he imported the barrels? As you probably know, J P Gemmer was a well known gunmaker in St. Louis who took over the Hawken gun shop from 1862 to 1915. I looked for a relative of his with the initials A P but with no luck.

Paul

Paul, you are right on the location. I just remembered wrong. It is hard to say how much work was done in England and how much in the U.S. I would think Gemmer would have imported at least barreled actions. Maybe he imported more than the barreled action.