doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Hello all. Lurker with another "what is it"

Picked this up recently and it has no maker anywhere. I can see that it is Belgian from what I have read here. This double is quiet fitting as I am a left eye dominant shooter.

Thanks for the help.

Ryan

That's a Belgian gun, made prior to 1924.

Too much glare to read the lettre annale (possibly a 'c' for 1924), and there might be maker's marks on the barrels; ?'DW'.
Help and PeteM's list of marks here
http://docs.google.com/document/d/17yCstxftvWXpFdSru4JKbRIE1-Q8OqXgJs66tEXntqw/edit

I will have to go back and look tonight. Thank you very much for the information. A lot of this I had found already but only in snippets and the way the link is laid out it helps tremendously. From what I can gather it is pre-1924 and proofed for smokeless. Given that it is pre-1924 then I would say that the "lettre annale" must be the squiggly 'b' that I can see making it 1923.

I have always had an affinity for doubles but never an opportunity to own any interesting ones. This came out of the personal collection of a closed gun shop. I happen to be left eye dominant and shoot left handed but when I shot this last weekend I hit 2/4 without trying hard. I don't have a lot into it so I am going to keep it around.

Would this have been commissioned for assembly or a production piece??

Thanks

Ryan

"Commissioned" by some cut-rate hardware store maybe.

Pre-1924 there is no date code. Information regarding inspector of proof marks pre-1924 has been lost.

Go with what you can know, the barrels weighed 1.273 kg
choke 18.3 mm. Glare prevents me from reading the rest.

Is that a DW or BW that I see? If it is BW then it is the trademark of Baltus-Wilmonte.

It appears a bit like a Francotte knock about, though it is not Francotte. Should make a nice field gun.

Pete

It is a "BW"

Just getting around to this one again. I assume I can shoot 2.5" RST's in it?

There is a date code on the barrel flats just above the *A
As you surmise a "b"
http://damascus-barrels.com/Belgian_All_Proofmarks.html
Can you provide a better picture?
Thanks
Mike

The 18.3 is the only size mark I see for the bore & choke. As this converts to .720" I highly suspect this is bore diameter & not choke diameter. In this case the word choke means it had at least .2mm (.008") of choke. If actual choke diameter is given on a Belgian then it will normally have two size marks, one for the bore & the smaller for the choke.