doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Unknown proofmark

Question to the BBS universe:
There have been guns around with a proofmark
unknown to me.
Last one is a Purdey at JamesDJulia auction april 2017 lot 2263.
About 3+ years ago I have seen one at either another
JamesDJulia auction or may be at a GriffinHowe offering
with the same mark.
In addition there emerged in US in the 1990's a Springer
with the original barrel ex 1930's plus an addditional
Ferlach sourced barrel ex 1960's with the same mark.
The gun went orginally to Lengerke&Detmold/US ,for the
second barrel ex Ferlach has been returned to Austria
and finally once more went to US.
I thought all these 3 resp. 4 markings refer to some
US markings, inch based figure plus the Springer with its two
barrelmarkings post 1960's tell the story that it never
touched UK soil (as another inch marking country).
My best guess would be its a type of US-import marking like the Czech had theirs between the wars or some propriatory
company marking.
Here are 3 photos of the JamesDJulia april 2017 Purdey
gun with these markings.
Any contribution to clarify this will be appreciated.
Felix Neuberger
http://www.jpgbox.com/page/51657
http://www.jpgbox.com/page/51658
http://www.jpgbox.com/page/51659

Here you go.

Wild guesses
9 71 is Sept 1971 showing still in proof
.740 is bore diameters
WJN or some other arrangement of letters was the measurer.
Maybe ever J at the last for Julia??

Mike

Another Gordian American - Austrian knot of a monogram or cipher? Unless there was a Austro-Hungarian mechanic that immigrated to the U.S. of A. and employed that mark, for the moment I haven't the foggiest idea.

Cheers,

Raimey
rse

Another gun with a similar mark, found with a Google search for 'WJN shotgun barrel mark'.

http://i.imgur.com/MGd2W4j.jpg

.776 makes no sense as a bore for a 16 gauge.

Perhaps it's barrel length in Meters?

Page from whence this came, with additional info:

https://www.reddit.com/r/guns/comments/30zyba/firebombing_nazis_and_shadily_procured_war/

Well, nice sleuthing. That looks to be a pre-1923 Suhl offering.


Cheers,

Raimey
rse

I wonder if this mark is some kind of German military acceptance mark, possibly for sporting arms.

WJN - Waffen Jagdt N-something.

Perhaps they had a standard where all barrels had to have a marked length. Note that both guns have the same measurement on each barrel.

Germans are nothing if not meticulous.

Nah, it is some cat that has knowledge of boring cylinders, hias knowledge of proof date(possibly mimicking date aspect the German proof law) and has the stamp. For now it seems to more of a mechanic's touchmark rather than a proof facility mark.

Cheers,

Raimey
rse

Another one.

This time with a measurement that likely is a bore diameter.

http://classic.gunauction.com/search/displayitem.cfm?itemnum=11575433

This guy gets around.

This in no "Proof Mark" at all. In my opinion it is the mark of some American gunsmith that did some work on the guns at a latter time. When metal is "stamped" a "burr" is raised. Note that on all the examples shown, the "burrs" have been removed without the metal being recolored.
Mike