Thanks to everyone for your comments. Dad's hunting buddy cut the barrels off to shoot rats at the local grain elevator where he worked for many years. Dad said he bought it new at a small town hardware store. It had been on the shelf "for a long time" and he got it for $15.00. Still a lot of money during the Depression. I think the retail price then was about $22.00. Dad said it was his first "brand new" shotgun and the only gun with which he got his daily limit on quail.
As for the used hulls, they were shot in the gun. I have commercial snap caps in all of my other guns. I used the empty hulls as a stop-gap until I can purchase a set for it. Actually, my dad replaces spent primers with pencil erasers to use as snap caps. He sas done that for as long as I can remember and has never had a problem. Are snap caps a necessity when dry-firing hammer guns?
