Raimey,

I didn't have my camera with me to photograph the "Sauer-Daly" so I'll see if those turn out. I would still call this gun a "Sauer-barrelled Lindner Daly", but I know what you mean :-). I asked my Dad to snap a few pics - hopefully they turn out.

In regard to the Featherweight Dalys - I've copied a few paragraphs below from an article I did on them for the GGCA pub about 2 years back. The Cliff Notes version is that FW Dalys have always been a source of confusion as they show up when the catalogs show weren't available. A Rosetta Stone of sorts in the form of a hang tag came was found that shed a lot of light on the mystery. In this case the FW gun hang tag listed a Daly model not found in the period caalog.

"Sometimes it only takes one small piece of new information to enable a whole lot of old research to fall into place. That new piece of information came to me recently in the form of a photo of an original factory hang tag attached to a featherweight Prussian Charles Daly hammerless gun. As a bonus, the featherweight Daly in question was an especially beautiful and minty example of a Lindner-made Daly.

Featherweight Dalys have always been a source of frustration in my research of Prussian Charles Daly guns. While there have been almost a dozen featherweight guns recorded in the Prussian Daly database, the 1894 Schoverling, Daly, and Gales (SD&G) catalog is the last catalog that I’ve found that specifically lists a separate featherweight model. There is no mention of a featherweight model in the 1899 SD&G catalog, nor in any of the dozen or so later SD&G catalogs that I own. Yet I have personally handled many featherweight Dalys that were produced well beyond that 1894 catalog date, twenty years later in some instances. In addition to their obvious light weight - 5.5 to 6.25 lbs 12 gauge guns are typical – the featherweight Dalys are identified as “featherweight” guns right on the rib.

By my estimate, the subject of this article – Charles Daly #965 - was produced circa 1902. However, neither the 1902 nor 1903 SD&G catalogs featured a specific featherweight model. Both catalogs list the model 118 (the lowest Daly offering at the time) and the model 135 (the next step up). The model 118 is a boxlock non-ejector hammerless SxS that features a dollshead extension, while the model 135 is basically identical to the model 118 except for a hair more engraving and a crossbolt extension instead of the dollshead. These models retailed for $125 and $140 respectively in 1902. Charles Daly #965 appears to be a model 135 except for the “featherweight” designation.

According to period SD&G catalogs, 12 gauge hammerless guns with 26” barrels were available in weights ranging from 5.75 – 6.75 lbs at this time. I had not been able to find a specific listing or mention of a featherweight model or featherweight option in catalogs of this Daly’s era. So the question has remained - Were the featherweight Dalys of this period a separate model (or models) or was the featherweight designation merely an option for an existing model?

The answer to that question appears on the top of the original hang tag. Charles Daly #965 is a model 125! And a superior specimen at that! So it appears that featherweight guns were actually considered different models by SD&G during this time frame. Why they were not included in the catalog advertisements (at least the catalogs that I own) as separate models is still a mystery however. I’m not willing to suggest that was always the case with the featherweight guns, but at this time, it appears that the featherweight guns were in fact separate models."


Unfortunately there are not enough FW Dalys in the database to say much about their respective rarity.

Specific FW models are NOT listed in the circa-1885 SD&G catalog. The are, however, listed in both the 1892 and 1894 SD&G catalogs, but not listed in 1895 or in the later catalogs I own. That all said there are several known Daly FW guns (marked as such, not just lightweight guns) recorded 15+ years later than the last catalog listing.

Ken