doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Dating by British proof marks

Am I correct in understanding that British proof marks do not provide any specific date information? The following marks are on an underlever model by an obscure London maker (the gun was later reproofed for 2.75" chambers).



Thanks in advance, Doverham

Looks like she might have saw reproof twice.

Doverham,In the upper right hand corner of the picture you will see the Birmingham private viewers mark. The letters and numbers within the crossed pikes should provide a month and year.
The all round best way of dating from the marks is to send a picture to the Birmingham proof house. They will happily read the marks and report back to you.

Justin - thanks for that suggestion.

jOe - I think I see two sets of marks:

1. BV/BP/NP Diamond with a 20/C, 21/2" Nitro Proof 7/8 [original post-1925 marks?]

2. Crown/R [for re-proof], BNP, 20-70-950 Bar, 15.9/15/7 [post-1989 reproof marks?]

Do you see something else?

This would suggest that the barrels were honed to 15.9mm (0.625") at the same time the chambers were lengthened?

Isn't it odd that an underlever would have original proof marks post 1925 - were they still making underlevers that late?

I think the original proof was black powder...the 2& 1/2" and 2 & 3/4" Nitreo re-proofs came later.

thanks jOe. The gun in question may have started out as a double rifle, so that could explain three sets of proof marks.

3 sets of marks.
The oldest are the 21 marks on each barrel pre 1887. A 20 gauge with slightly undersized bores. Barrels might say "not for ball" if either barrel was originally choked. Those marks would be further out on the bottom of the barrels and are not in the photo. I would also expect the other original marks are out on the barrels as well.
The it looks like a mid-life reproof denoting 2 1/2".
Finally a recent reproof to 70mm with metric 15.7/15.9 for bore diameters.
The pre-1887 21 bore marks would be consistant with the period when Jones under-levers were fairly common.

Joe

What are the letters on the crossed pikes? LC is 1985,on to ZC 1998 then start AD 1999 etc.

J in C - thanks. Those dates seem to make a lot more sense.

Gunman - the photo quality is not quite good enough for me to make out the letter codes in the photos.

The whole numeral 21 was in use until 1954 for guns with bore larger than .605" but less than .615" I see barrels made between 1925-1954, reproofed due to enlargement and re chambering since 1989. Not necessarily the original barrels to the gun.