doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Schoverling, Daly & Gales Hammer Drilling w/Pics

Hi Guys,

I recently purchased a Charles Daly branded, 3-barrel drilling serial # 328xx.

While I know this firearm came out of an estate sale in Texas, other than the fact that this gun was originally imported by Schoverling, Daly & Gales Firearms company I know very little about the history of this specific firearm.

From what I have gathered here and elsewhere I believe this gun was most likely produced by J.P. Sauer in the late 1800’s.

The top barrels are 12ga with the left barrel choked modified and the right barrel choked full.

As far as the rifle barrel is concerned I believe most of these guns usually carried 38-55 barrels. However, the individual that I purchased this firearm from stated that he “had the barrel "slugged" by a gunsmith and the caliber he came up with was slightly larger than 38-55”…?

I would appreciate any info anyone could provide on this gun. Specifically, who may have produced it, what year it may have been produced, what is the general value of these guns, and any other info that may be relevant.

I thank everyone for there input in advance, and would be happy to post any additional info or pictures upon request.

JRH

That is a beautiful gun. Your Daly "Three barrel Gun" (Drilling) is technically a model 105. The model 105 retailed for $75 in 1899. The hammelress variety went for $200 at the same time.

Every Daly drilling I have ever encountered has been a Sauer gun - others may have also produced drillings for SD&G, but I have never seen one.

Looking through a few period SD&G catalogs I see that, depending on the year, the gun was offered in a choice of calibers including "32 and 38 W.C.F", "38/55", "30-30". It was also offer in 45/70 with 10 gauge tubes.

Enjoy your new gun.

Ken

Thanks Ken,

As I am sure you know the 38 W.C.F is also known as the 38-40. So it seems that the most likely chambering for this gun is either the 38-40 or the 38-55. In both case the second portion of the caliber name refers only to the amount of grains of black powder original used in the loads. However despite the fact that both names start with a "38" neither is actually a .38 caliber bullet.

The .38-40 uses a .401 bullet...
The .38-55 uses a .375 bullet...

Given these two facts, if I can get a hold of the gunsmith that originally slugged the barrel hopefully he can tell what he came up with and it will turn out to be .401.

Given the facts above, have seen any similar models sell lately, and what do they usually go for?

Once again, thanks for your help...

JRH

My Sauer drilling is almost identical to yours (side lever to open, top lever to select rifle), has a barrel that I have not slugged but it seems to be somewhere from 41 to 43. I shoot 2 1/2" .410 shot shells in the rifle barrel. They fit like a glove. Does a 2 1/2" .410 shell fit in yours? No one I have talked to suggests a 38-40 but in a Daly marked example, I would think that was a good guess. Mine is not Daly marked so I suspect it is a European metric caliber.

I looked at the same model drilling this weekend in Duluth,it was a 16 bore with(I'm assuming) a metric rifle chambering.
They were asking 3K for it,I guess that included the red rust in the shot bores,I walked away.

R. Glenz

I know what you are talking about...There is currently another C. Daly that is identical, but in much poorer condition than mine, being offered on GunsAmerica for 4k$.

Obviously, I know that the honest value of these guns is not that high. That is why I posted here in hopes that some of the members may have seen these guns actually changing hands over the past year or two.

The difficulty in valuing these guns is their relative obscurity means it is very difficult to find records of their recent sale prices. That leaves me trying to compare the features of this gun to other drillings that are currently changing hands more regularly. Unfortunately, this gun has enough unique features that I find even that approach rather difficult.

In the end, I always enjoy researching these and other guns so any infomation I can locate is always very much appreciated...

Regards,
JRH

My Sauer, identical to the pictured gun except for the sighting (mine has a folding rib sight rather than a tang sight) and a 1905 serial number, was sold to me by a close friend. The price is/was off the scale on the low side. Mine has a screaming piece of English and a nice thick horn butt, but nowhere near the wood quality of the pictured gun. It is choked about .015 and .025, so is an ideal all purpose bird gun, especially with the load of 7 1/2 in the .410 shell in the bottom barrel. When it came to me, things were just a little brown, but now it is cleaned up nicely and has no mechanical problems at all. It is among my favorite German guns.

Eightbore,

How did you determine the serial # date? Also, do you happen to know if the Sauer serial #'s ran consecutively with the Daly models or were they a completely seperate sequence?

JRH

Jeff Stephens' articles in the Double Gun Journal took the mystery out of Sauer serial numbers. My number is 118,000 series, as I recall, and doesn't seem to be in sequence with your gun, but I haven't checked on Jeff's chart. Ken Georgi would have the answer to your question, I think.

Eight,

Thanks for the suggestion...I have been meaning to drop Ken a line. I just wanted to try gather as much general information here as possible before asking him about any specifics.

Earlier you also mentioned that your gun had folding rear sight but no peep...I am not sure if you could tell from my pictures but mine has both a folding site and a peep. In other words mine is exactly like yours but has one added feature.

I believe small features such as the peep is what distinguished the grades within specific models. While mine certainly does not seem to be much above a field grade, based on the presence of the peep, I am sure it was not the lowest grade.

Based on what I have seen it seems the presence of a "trap" on these guns is what marks the next level above our guns in terms of hardware.....

JC