doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Another old Belgian Clunker, I think...

Wow - didn't think it was as good as you guys make it sound! To us it was always 'the old shotgun'. He made the butt end of the stock just a plain, straight cut at a slight angle from the heel to the toe. He seems to have matched the wood and finish pretty closely to the forestock. The rubber recoil pad that my father or grandfather put on had pretty well rotted off, so I just added the Shooterpads Gelpad.

My grandfather did do a lot of carving. He had carved various decorative chains, balls-in-cages, saddle parts, stirrups, and other things. The trigger guard has is a long tail piece that is inlaid into the stock, and right where you can see that screw head sticking out it looks like it had broken off and was brazed back together. It extends another 4.5 inches to the rear of that screw. My guess is that the original stock broke there and he carved up a new one and fit it, and brazed the broken pieces of the tail of the trigger guard. I never did hear any stories about the stock breaking, though.

At any rate, I'm definitely keeping it, and hope to be doing a decent amount of shooting with it.

Here are a few more photos:









Thanks again, everyone, for all the information and pointers to more info!

Could the LJ be a barrel maker's mark?

Probably the barrel knitter and something like Louis Jeusette,
http://www.google.com/patents?id=dpJRAAAAEBAJ&printsec=abstract#v=onepage&q&f=false , Leonard Jehotte or Lajot & Jonlet but I don't think anyone has put their finger on the owner of the initials thus far. I'm sure there are other possibilities.

Kind Regards,

Raimey
rse

That is a good question. Many have been doing a lot work on that front over the years. I have over 1,000 marks documented and that is just for the Belgian makers.

http://damascus-barrels.com/Belgian_Trade_Marks.html

I could add another 500 - 1,000 to that list.

Raimey has been working on the German / Austrian makers. While others here have been working on the English makers.

It becomes too speculative with out proof. The Belgians had to register their trademarks early on. In some cases, a trademark belonged to a a maker then was re-registered to another maker when the 1st user died or did not renew. So it is important to date the gun.

In addition to maker's marks, we have found jobbers, knitters, resellers, lot and factory marks.

It has, in some cases lead to a deeper understanding of the trade. It was common for a gun from Belgian to go through a broker in Antwerp. From there to a importer in New York.



SeattleVet,

That is no clunker. It is a very nice mid grade gun. Any one would be proud to carry it in the field. For ammo check out RST http://www.rstshells.com They have the correct length and pressure for your gun.

Pete

Thanks. I checked RST's site when I was first looking for shells, but bought a flat of 67mm Holland & Holland light loads (fiber wad) from Classic Shooting not too far south of here. These seem to do well - no excessive kick, hits the targets. I'll head to the range at some point and pattern it with these so I have a better idea of exactly what I've got going on.

I spent several hours over the past week on your site, combing through for any clues about a possible manufacturer, but came up blank. Nice to know I'm not the only one!

A real family treasure. Thanks for sharing it with us.

Rick

With some "Continental" guns you just have to label them "a nice team effort"! That Italian/German/Belgian wartime gun that Bugeyed Monster was asking about a while ago is a good example.

Finding "The" maker only matters when you go to sell the gun....to the rest of us it's a matter of interest, for sure, but not the most important one. I'd say the safety and quality of the gun are what's really paramount.

Seattle, your first photo of the top lever shows it just slightly left of center. Is there any wobble when the forend is off? Looks like it could be just a bit loose.

all the other photo's in that group are without the barrels on the gun. i'd assume the one in which the lever is left of center is the same. it's not that unusual for the lever to go past center when the barrels are off.

All of the photos were with the barrels off, and, yes, it is just a very slight bit loose. I'm probably going to have this worked over sometime during the coming year. I also have a .44 cal. 1858 New Army that need some timing work, but we're in the middle of a huge remodel project and I can't justify doing these right now...