doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Greener GP

Gentlemen,

What is the going rate in the U.S. for a Greener GP Martini in 12 gauge with a 32" barrel? The gun is in about 75% condition. This is not one of the later models with the circlips. No vent rib, fixed IM choke, blued receiver.

Thank you for your insight...

I had one that was just thrown in with the deal when I bought a Chas. Boswell gun from England a few years back. Condition was every bit as good as you describe, perhaps a bit better. I had no use at all for it, and ended up selling it for $400. Don't think I have seen any current sales figures, they may bring a bit more now.

I must admit I am a sucker for the Martini action. I have watched for one of these in good condition for a few years now, but they do not seem to come up very often. As with most of us, I sometimes let me infatuation overcome my sense of reason, so I would like to get some examples of bought or sold prices on these guns before I make an offer or fall in love with one.

Where are you...here in USA?
I've been looking for one for years...never seem to see them here...well rarely , anyhow.
I always thought one would be great for a single smooth bore ball gun...or sleeve on a fully rifled bbl.....even though I really don't like a single trigger...ha ha
I'd buy it if the price seemed reasonable
Back in England they go pretty cheap..like 200 bucks...but getting one over here is big hassle for cheap (but nice) gun
cheers
franc

I should add that the dealer claimed a price of $480 out the door.

Franc, I've wondered if it had an open choke if it wouldn't shoot both birdshot and slugs well? Seems a quick loading gentleman could hunt for bear and birds simultaneously if one lived in a state where these seasons overlapped. Then again, why not just buy a combi or drilling?

And I live in Pennsylvania.

There is a bloke called "Boomer" on TS.com that has one for sale
Looks very nice as well

Cheers

Some years back I bought a pretty nice one of the Greener "Police" guns. it of course had two stage chamber & bore was proofed as a 14. These were as I recall cylinder bored. With a chamber job with the tight bore this one should have made a nice slug gun, at least for the slugs of the day. Let a co-worker talk me out of it. He wanted to build a .32-40 on it.

Both sounds like neat guns!

The Police guns were the original G.P. which stood for Ghaffire Police and were made for the Egyptian Police. They can be found in Mark I, Mark II, and Mark III with variations. They used a rather odd tapered cartridge. The Mark III, had three firing pins with the outer two needing to fall into a recess around the cartridge primer. These later cartridges were made of brittle plastic and shattered on being fired. The reason for all this was that certain bent Police Officers would hire out guns to criminals who used to adapt cartridges for use by wrapping tape around 16 bore cartridges. The Mark III's would stop this. I have an original box and they are numbered 1 to 25 so that they could be accounted for. When they finished the Police contract they had a lot of tooling and parts so produced them as 12 bores for the sporting market in various forms. I think there was also a few 16 bores made and some single barrel trap guns which were cased and now very collectable. One variant was a multi choke with a spare choke tube screwed into the end of the forend. They crop up frequently here in the U.K. and don't sell for much unless a rare model in top condition. I once had a Police model that had been converted to 12 bore and proofed for 3" cartridges. It still had all its Egyptian armoury marks on it. Well made and strong workhorse guns but certainly not elegant. Lagopus.....

I guess mine was the mark III as it had the three pins. Technically I don't think the outer two could be called firing pins as they only prevented the center one from hitting the primer if the shell head didn't have the circular groove for them to fall into. They of course played no part in the firing itself.
Several rimfires, including the Henry, have been made with dual firing pins which both struck the primed area of the rim on opposite sides. Some of these very early rimfire shells didn't get a real uniformity in the priming & this helped insure against misfires.