smoothbore value

[infideleggwelder]

For a friend, his father gave him an octagon to round percussion smoothbore, looks to be about 20ga or around that. barrel has 2 wedding bands, nice engraving in the lock. front and rear sight, rear sight is soldered on, and looks like home job. the nipple needs replacing, but mainspring still has good snap. does not look like a conversion from flint, although the lock may be a complete replacement. any ideas of value? i couldn`t get a good full length photo but its about 50 inch long. worn writing on lock says "warranted". could`t get really good look down bore, but what i could see looked ok.

no set trigger

 

[tiriaq]

If the gun was ever flint, the stock will be cut to clear the ####.
I suspect that the gun was assembled from parts some time ago.

 

[Ol' Flinter]

Not a usual Trade Gun - the poured pewter forend cap, curved steel butt plate looks martial and curved trigger are mid-1800's to my eye. I agree with Tiriaq that it appears to be cobbled together from unrelated parts.

 

[tiriaq]

I was wondering if the barrel was from a trade gun. About the right size and configuration. Couldn't see any markings in the photo of the barrel breech, though. I've seen other guns with salvaged trade gun barrels. One was an over under rifle shotgun, the trade gun barrel being on the bottom.

To inspect a smoothbore, use one of the little AAA size single celled flashlights. Drop it down the bore facing toward the muzzle. Won't see the breech, that would need an endoscope.

 

[infideleggwelder]

I was wondering about that too, the barrel being from another gun. trade gun perhaps. it has a grey hard paint/coating on it that needs removal and there might be some brazing near the breech opposite the lock. hard to tell till its cleaned. the barrel looks older than the lock, the under rib is steel and looks like it is supposed to be there. the ramrod is tapered and well made. all the work except the sights appears to be well done, fitted nicely. not sure when i`ll get to see it again.