doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Looking for a set of 10ga Damascus barrels

I’m looking a set of barrels as above for a project I have recently acquired. I’m looking for a set of 10ga Damascus barrels, preferably marked with a 2, Stephen Grant on the rib and serial number 6183.

If those don’t surface in a day or two I’ll be looking for a good serviceable set of barrels to be fitted to my hammerless sidelock.

What’s out there?

Thanks,
Bryndon

May God bless your optimism.

Arnold Palmer had a saying, "Never up, never in.", meaning that if you don't putt hard enough to get it there it won't ever drop.

I wish you all the best luck in finding a set of barrels with the exact markings you want.

Well, I’m a dreamer but I’m also a realist. I plan to fit a set of barrels to the gun. I will likely have to find a set that is close the proper width and make a new lug to make them fit the gun.

Width is 2.409”. Originally thought it was a 12, but the ghost rings on the breech face measure .920”

I figured why not state the gun I’m try to complete. Someone might just have the barrels and a light bulb goes off.

Making a new lug to fit a set of existing barrels to frame is a job I wouldn't take for love or money. Likely easier to build a whole new set.

Best of luck and do show us how the project comes together.

Good luck in your quest.

IF time and money were no object, then you could always order a new set of barrels ftom Atkin, Grant and Lang.

Before this year’s Game Fair I would have said that, sadly, they would not be Damascus.

I attach these pictures (sorry about poor quality) that I took at a stand that I only noticed at the end of the day, but which was the most interesting to me in all of Gunmakers Row.

It is clearly a labour of love, that will only prosper if he and a gunmaker can link up with customers who are patient, well heeled and prepared to take part in the resurrection of a lost art.

Try reaching out to Kirby at Vintage Doubles and see what he may have

Good point - I’ll check with Kirby.

… as well as Daniel Cote. He used to run an “orphanage” for SxS barrels.

danieljoanna@voyager.net

Mark Beasland might be another option.

I once had an apparently unused pair of Purdey 12 bore barrels. Perfect condition. I advertised in DGJ, on internet and called everyone I could think of. One dealer recalled he had the entire gun in his shop fairly recently. (Gun was from a very famous estate)

I called Purdey, etc. 3 years later I gave up and sold the barrels to a guy who had a two barrel set missing the 30” pair. No idea if he was successful it fitting them.
Purdey said it would be easier to simply build a new set. I don’t know.

I’m sure Purdey would rather build a new set. $$$$$

Doubt that today the current workmen could do either very well.

It's not like they would do it themselves, It would go to Blacker or Peter Higgins I'm sure, they would just run it through the books.

Possibly so but they do build barrels in the shop. I’ve seen them do all stages of the process.

Your best first step starts with doing some detective work. I mostly collect Syracuse Lefevers, and am always looking for parts and orphan barrels. I've bought several parts guns with missing barrels, and simply by asking the sellers if they had any idea what became of the barrels, I was able to get valuable information. One seller told me he had bought the 16 ga. G grade action and forend from a local police department. The gun had been stolen in a burglary, and the thief had sawed the barrels to around 10 inches long. I contacted the Chief of that Police Dept. and he told me they would never release the sawed-off barrels, and they would be destroyed. Just as well because sleeving the cut barrels would have exceeded the value of the gun. That was around 20 years ago, and I finally found a nice set of 16 ga. G grade Damascus barrels a few months ago. As a bonus, the orphan barrels had a set of Savage .410 sub gauge inserts.

Another guy told me that he thought the missing barrels of the stock, action and forend he sold me might be at his father's house in Georgia, and he would look for them on his next trip there. A month later, he called and said he found the barrels and they were also cut down. He said they were in the mail, and I was very concerned that he was shipping me a set of very illegal barrels. They turned out to be cut somewhat crooked with one tube at a bit over 18.1" and the other at 18.2".... whew! I eventually found an orphan set to fit to that gun.

I also bought an IE grade action and forend at one gun show, and several months later, I bought the matching serial number buttstock at another gun show 90 miles away. It turned out that those parts were bought at a deceased gunsmith's estate sale roughly a decade earlier. So there is at least a good chance the matching barrels are still in my area, and I keep hoping to find them. I did buy an orphan set of ejector barrels from a member here, so was able to cobble another mismatched shooter until the day the originals hopefully turn up.

I'm quite sure Steven Grant production numbers were lower than Lefever's, so the odds of locating the original missing barrels are not in your favor. One advantage you have is that most English makers seem to have their name engraved on the top rib, while many American doubles are not marked with the makers name. So parts sellers often don't even know what they have. Simply finding a set of orphan 10 ga. Damascus Grant barrels will be a tall order, and even if you do, they might not be able to be fitted to your action. Barrels of the same gauge can have very different breech height and width dimensions, and very different firing pin spacings. But the search can be interesting, and a good way to save a good gun from just being parted out. Best of luck in your search.

A bonus coming out of the Trump administration is the fact that we may no longer have to worry about short barreled shotguns. There is a lot of movement on this issue in the courts. Hopefully soon when you find a fine gun that has barrels to short you won't have to worry about becoming a felon. The sheriffs dept can give them up so that they can be sleeved. The NFA was stupid on that issue all these years. A few minutes and a hacksaw created something that should have been legal all along. That law certainly didn't deter any criminal from doing it since 1934.

Agreed Keith, finding the originals will be nearly impossible. I typed the info for the original gun in case someone has the barrels and does an internet search for the maker and serial number. If they do Google should bring them here. I learned that from Petrov.

I bought the gun recently from a friend who had it listed on gunsinternational. He bought it at auction a few years ago and finally had that “I’m never gonna…” conversation with himself. Lucky for him the world is full of fools like me who love the idea of fixing up old guns.

I’ve had a couple offers for barrels from this posting. One was a complete gun which I hate to part out, the other is a set of orphan barrels from a top maker that need located.

I have no issues with working on barrels to make them fit. I’ve had sets of barrels completely apart and put them back together. If a set is too narrow I can space them out. If the diameters are too large I can file them down, etc. Barrels are quite simple if you don’t let yourself get intimidated by them.

Would fluid steel barrels work ? I think they were around when your gun was built.

SKB;

Recently I was talking with one of our gunmaking colleagues in the UK and he told me that Peter Higgins and his son build their barrel tubes with vintage machinery that Peter found. I did not think to ask him how long Peter had been doing this, but I will.

Kind regards;
Stephen Howell

Daryl,

Yes I think steel barrels would be fine. I’m a Damascus junky so I thought I’d go for the fence and search for Damascus first with steel as a backup.

https://www.gunbroker.com/item/1198846659
Bob Jurewicz

Whew! $1,000 Parker barrels seems like all the money?

Yeah, that seemed just a bit pricey for Twist barrels in worn, dented, and pitted condition.