doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com New guy and a gun question.

Exactly.

Now that is good.

Kind Regards,

Raimey
rse

OK, that is NOT at all what I expected.

Returned to the box store today. Have them removed the trigger lock and as I expected, the gun opened right up. What I immediately realized is that the gun has been sleeved and reproofed at Birmingham. Which is utterly fascinating to me, because the gun is very light for a 12 and I think of sleeved guns as being heavy in my very short experience with them.



Anyone want to decode the rest of this for me?

So, the gun comes to the shoulder nicely. It has a huge butt plate extension which when removed will put it nicely at about 14.25"lop. Other than the broken top lever spring the mechanics seem sound and the barrels ring true. The serial number is low, 29xx and again the wood looks like it will be very nice when cleaned up.

We rubbed some gunk out of the top rib inscription and I think it says D. Cxxxhart $ Sons, Stirling or Stirlieg. A pencil rubbing yielded no better results.

Thanks again,
Shane

Oh, and under the forearm on the barrels themselves (both) is "F-A-D"

D. Crockhart of Stirling. The h in Crockhart was dropped sometime between about 1894-97. After that it was spelled Crockart. It was David Crockart & Sons after 1897.

From Nigel Brown's British Gunmakers.

Brilliant! Thank you so much Canvasback.

So now, unfortunately for my wife, I actually am interested in the gun. I figured out what most of the proof marks mean and that the barrels were sleeved sometime relatively recently (1985 - 1997 according the to LC1 crossed sword stamp.

I still have no idea what the 13/1 marks mean.

Anyhow... any idea how hard it would be to find or make a spring? Of course there could be other issues once inside the gun, but the fact that it was sleeved so recently makes me thing it shouldn't be just a total basket case.

Any idea of value?

Shane

Given the apparent lack of engraving and its Scot/Brit birth, I'm going to guess it's a gamekeeper's gun or, as an outside possibility, one made for the US market.

Y'know, given it's been sleeved recently, you might be able to send non-tox through it. I dunno if when they sleeve guns they also lengthen the chambers, but that might be worth a look/ask, too.

If you're willing to say, how much are they asking for it?

They are asking $700, but I am not interested in it anywhere near that price honestly.

Not sure about the non-tox, but it does say the chambers are 2.5". I haven't much interest in non-tox shot. Most of the places I hunt dont require it, and I don't hunt waterfowl.

I suppose it could have been made for the US market, but then I would find it odd that it went back to the UK for the sleeve job.

At this point I am thinking it may end up in the gun safe as a project. Hell, it's over 105 degrees here every day now. There is a real need for a project.

Britian is about the only source for sleeving. the 13/1 is a diameter like the 0.736" measurement. Seems as it passed the 1st series of proof in the Birmingham in the 1904-1925 period. Then sleeving and subsequent reproof in the 1954-1989 period. From time to time I shoot non-tox thru somewhat open chokes in sleeved hammerguns. Does resemble an export or colony sporting longarm.

Kind Regards,

Raimey
rse

Well, if I were in your shoes, given that the gun is going to need fixing, I would go to the seller and offer them, say, $375 or $400 with the argument that it's going to cost a good $200 (this is a throw-a-dart-at-the-wall number; here's where your BSing ability comes into play) to get it fixed and it's worth maybe $600 when fully functional. There'd be a large psychological difference on their part to hearing $375 or $400, the latter being more appealing and less insulting of a lowball. They've been trying to sell it for two years, so they can feel happy to get it off the sales floor and open up space for something black and plastic. How long has it been for them since anyone showed any interest in it, let along the amount you've shown?

But, anyway, if you don't hunt ducks, you need to start. What could possibly be wrong with more hunting?

It got up to 88 here in Maine today, which is pretty oppressive. I'm hoping for (a) a thunderstorm or (b) the breeze to change and come off the ocean, which will drop the temps by 15 or 20 degrees.