[GLKmiester]

Hello, my fil has asked me to help him clean up and find info on a couple double barrel shotguns that have been passed down through his family. He says they belonged to his grandpa's grandfather.

I'm pretty sure their made in England in the late 1800's or early 1900's. They have laminated steel barrels. I've taken them to a lgs but they couldn't give me much info other than not to shoot regular ammo in them. I know some of the parts, like the hammers, are replacements. To clean them I was going to just wipe the metal down with clp.

I wasn't sure if this was the right section to post this or not, but I figured they were old so I might be close. I'll post pics of each shotgun in separate posts, so they don't get mixed up. Thanks for any help.

[GLKmiester]

Here is the other shotgun.

[c3shooter]

Pixels! Dammit, man- we need PIXELS! In order to make out the markings, we have to blow up the pics. Unless they have enuff definition, blowing them up only gives us a large fuzzy picture.

The first gun appears to be Belgian, from around 1871-1872 period. Think I can see this mark- which is the Leige Belgium proofhouse.

The other gun MAY be English- looks like the crossed halbeards proofmark. Cannot read the writing on the side- if that says W Richards- that is NOT Westley Richards (well known British maker of very high quality guns) There were 5 other companies that used W Richards- one of them English, from about 1880.

And yes, those are Damascus type twist steel barrels, and I would urge you to fire NOTHING through them. Originally meant for low pressure black powder shells, after a century and a quarter with corrosive black powder residue to work on each of the thousands of weld points.......

Now go get us some hi def photos of the markings.

We'll wait.

[Garadex]

Other than me having no info looks like your FIL has two new guns to hang on the wall.

[GLKmiester]

Sorry, I've been really busy with work lately. I'll get some better pics up this weekend. I thought my iPhone would be able to take a better picture.

[Chase127]

Try searching for the makers marks most reputable pawn shops could help you with that