Recently purchased an old underlever SXS, sight unseen, from a friend. The way he described it to me, I was convinced that it was a Belgian-made Guild gun. What I did know, is that the gun was functional but missing both firing pins. To be perfectly honest, the whole reason I committed to buying it was to turn it into a floor lamp but now that I have it in my hands, I think I'll keep it as-is and who knows, maybe get it to shooting condition down the road. Just a beautiful plum patina on the twist barrels and the underlever latches the barrels down very tightly. On the downside, there is some pitting on the inside of the barrels as well as the aforementioned missing firing pins.
A rudimentary googling of the proof marks show that it was proofed in Birmingham, sometime between 1887-1896, with blackpowder only. I seem to remember reading somewhere that it's not uncommon to have Belgian guild guns (for the English market) proofed in Birmingham, yes? There are no marking of any kind to denote the maker, it's an orphan. Another marking on the barrels is "14" on one, "14/1" on the other, Google tells me that this refers to 14 bore, but I could be wrong. There is another proof mark of 12 over C, could this be an old 14 bore barrel reamed and proofed later in life for 12 gauge? No mention of the actual chokes, just "CHOKE" stamped on one barrel. To quote my favourite YT gunsmith Mark Novak, "the 24hr Belgian Guild parts gunstore is closed", so, how difficult and/or expensive will it be to find or source both firing pins?
Thank in advance to any info on the shotgun.
A rudimentary googling of the proof marks show that it was proofed in Birmingham, sometime between 1887-1896, with blackpowder only. I seem to remember reading somewhere that it's not uncommon to have Belgian guild guns (for the English market) proofed in Birmingham, yes? There are no marking of any kind to denote the maker, it's an orphan. Another marking on the barrels is "14" on one, "14/1" on the other, Google tells me that this refers to 14 bore, but I could be wrong. There is another proof mark of 12 over C, could this be an old 14 bore barrel reamed and proofed later in life for 12 gauge? No mention of the actual chokes, just "CHOKE" stamped on one barrel. To quote my favourite YT gunsmith Mark Novak, "the 24hr Belgian Guild parts gunstore is closed", so, how difficult and/or expensive will it be to find or source both firing pins?
Thank in advance to any info on the shotgun.
