Brevette Shotgun information

[Alex]

Hello, I placed this over in the firearms research side but figured I might get more hits here. This afternoon I put on layaway a very nice European double 12 guage. The gun is very nicely engraved with stags and pheaseants on a silvered action. and scroll on the barrel. The top of the barrel is engraved in gold script Ejecteur Hanquet Brevete' Acier Extra Fin and than in engraved script right after Loh Lunhlin Heby. The buttstock is without a butt plate and is simply checkered European fashion. The gun is in excellent condition with 26" barrels and what appear to be factory installed sling swivels mounted in the stock and on the barrel. The price the store was asking for it was $629.00. Can anybody tell me something about this gun. Thanks.

 

[romulus]

All I know is that "brevete' " means "patented..." It isn't shotgun make.

 

[Dave McCracken]

I'm no expert on Euro shotguns, but here's a couple things.

If the proofs are marked St Etienne, it's more likely to be French than Belgian. It's almost certainly one of those. Chances are it's a good shotgun. "Guild" guns are a lot of gun for the money.

It almost certainly has 2 1/2" chambers.Using modern 2 3/4 ammo in short chambers is neither fun nor safe.These can be lengthened most of the time.

When they can't, short shells are available from Gamebore et al, but they don't run cheap.

It's also probably choked a little tighter than modern ammo needs.

Finally,lots of Euro shotguns have sling swivels. While the bespoke crowd sneers at these, they do come in handy. Some swivels can be removed easily leavign a base that imitates a QD stud.

Don't get me wrong,you'll have a good shotgun with this one.It may just need a little optimizing.

HTH...

 

[Alex]

Thanks for the information, I have a little bit more to share now since I went and looked at it again last night. When I broke it down the proof marks under the barrels were like this. Each barrel had a line of proofs that started with and E over LG with a star underneath. Next there was a diamond with the writing 12 C with a star underneath the diamond. The last marking was a V. There was also a couple of letters that could have been an EL in a squiggley scroll pattern. The choke information was 174/182 and 177/182 for each barrel respectively. There was also a D2 and a JA present. Can anyone tell me what these markings mean?

 

[romulus]

I remember reading somewhere about the LG being the Liege proofmark...that I guess would make the gun a Belgian piece