I'm with postoak all the way. Those are runes
I'm with the Krakow Kid on this. Click on the link for one of the best preserved manuscripts of Scandinavian Runes dating from the 1300's This is the more modern of the two Runic forms which adopted some of the Latin alphabet letters,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CodexRunicus.jpeg.
The direct link doesn't seem to be working but cutting and pasteing the URL will get you to the right page then scroll down looking for the Codex, and click on that.
A quick glance will show two of the three figures on the rifle trigger guard, the third may be present, but not so obvious to my tired old eyes.
Harry