More expensive? Absolutely.
Look around the west where 'Log Cabin McMansions' are popping up like weeds. Many decorated in a period motif which includes the needed old shotgun over the mantle. Decorators are driving prices up on this old 'junk'.
As to the hole in the barrel, it looks like burst from a bore obstruction that was peened back down and then filed 'smooth'.
An oldtimer (passed away last year at 89) that hung out at the same gunshop I did a decade ago used to have an old hammergun with a similiar hole about 8" back from the muzzles. He still regularly shot it with blackpowder loads. He said it shot flame out the hole but it was way past his forward hand and he had been shooting it that way for 30+ years.
Last edited by Utah Shotgunner; 10/19/07 11:07 PM.
