doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com W. P. Jones in rough shape - opinion and info?

Recently my parents pulled out a W. P. Jones double barrel that was my great grandfathers. It is in rough shape after they found it in my grandmothers attic. I have never had a gun this old, much less one with inlay and engraving like this. If it's not really worth anything, I'd like to clean it up some and display it, but I dont want to do anything wrong if this gun might have some value. I'd also like to have an idea of the history of it (year, model, etc). My local shooting forum pointed me here for expert info. Thanks in advance for any help!

By clean it up, I mean nothing harsh, just remove dirt and bad rust, not patina, and get something like restoration wax on it to preserve it. The attached pics make it look a lot cleaner than it is in person. Then proudly display it in my house, both because it was my great grandfathers and because it is a nice looking gun. I am happy if it's not worth much - I'm not invested in the value of it. I just don't want to do anything incorrect if it *is* something of value/history.

Judging from the care it's received over the years it's quite obvious it was of little value to your great grandfather...

As far as value today....in good working order it might've brought $800 to $1000....the poor condition it's in I'd say $5 as a tomato stake.

Don't worry about jOe's estimate of value. He is bad to under-value tomato stakes!...Geo

Order a couple pads from here and clean the metal with oil

http://www.exploreproducts.com/big45-frontier-gun-cleaner.htm

use a piece of a frontier pad on a cleaning rod to get some dirt out of the insides of the barrels - then get a good coat of oil in there to slow the rust.

clean the wood with a furniture cleaner then put a thin coat of paste wax on-

hang it on the wall with the hammer showing and you won't need to hunt for a replacement one.

10- 20 bucks total cleaning supplies and you have a piece of family history on the wall

Dear sir I am new to this web site and could not find a way to post a question iam not very good on computers please forgive thank you my name is vernice f cusick i have a question about my antique shot gun

Welcome to the DoubleGun forum Vernice! Your best bet would be to open a new thread and fully describe the gun you have to include all lettering on the out and in sides. If you can take photos of the gun and open a Photobucket account for free you can upload your pix from your computer to your Photobucket account and then easily post them here. We will try to answer your questions but need something to base our answers on...Geo

I'm sure my great grandfather cared for it, but it's sad that no one after him has. This gun sat in my grandmothers OLD unconditioned attic in rural Pennsylvania for years and no one even knew it was there. Then my folks found it after my grandmother died but then left it in their attached garage for years. I just found out about it now. I also got with it an old AJ Aubrey single shot 12 ga in similar (poor) shape and missing the fore wood. I know it's not worth anything either.

But that just means I have two neat old guns that I can clean up and display on the wall without guilt. And it inspires me to be sure I properly care for my own guns, and teach my young daughters to do the same. I've seen that my father in law does NOT understand how to care for some vintage cowboy rifles he owns, so I have some work to do there.

Thanks for the info! I'm glad I found this forum - I've found a lot of great general information here already!

Hi Thecarman.
I wish I could be in such good shape after a couple of hundred years or so, I have restored guns in far worse condition than yours and a good number did become usable but it does all hinge around the barrel condition. I think that after some careful cleaning and rust removal it would make a fine wall hanger and as others have said it is your family history so money can�t buy that. Though if you wish to take things further advice from a good gunsmith with some experience of muzzle loaders should be your next port of call because you can�t beat hands on practical experience. Just one piece of advice finding another hammer to match will be looking for the proverbial needle in the hay stack and having one made and engraved to suit will not be cheap, so it will be more economical to find a vintage pair of hammers that will fit. Finally there is the long game you may not really want to spend time or money on this gun that is part of your family history, so do your best to halt the ravages of time keep it safe and maybe let a future member of the family decide weather they want to go to the trouble of restoring it to its former glory.

Who are you trying to kid ?