My neighbor gave me a wallhanger

[TangSafetyM77]

I was wondering if anyone here could tell me about this gun. My neighbor mentioned he had an old muzzle-loading shotgun one day and asked if I would like to have it. I said yes, and he was back with it in about 2 minutes. It is interesting because the right barrel is a rifle barrel that appears to be about 45 caliber. The right barrel also has some simple sights on it. The left hand barrel is a smoothbore of about 12 ga with no sights. It looks ike the lock was messed with at one point (conversion?). The ramrod is missing. The only marks I can find are 3 small hash marks on the right barrel near the rear sight. The best way I can describe the marks: they are in the shape of tiny ralroad spikes. All the bottom metal is brass. Thanks for the help!

 

[TangSafetyM77]

More photos

A couple more

 

[SDC]

There may be some make or manufacturer markings on the sidelocks or the rib, or even under the wood, but this is known as a "Cape gun" (when travellers were going to South Africa to homestead, they didn't want to take along more than they needed, so they preferred to have one longarm that was half shotgun, half rifle, instead of one of each).

 

[Jim K]

I don't think it is a conversion. Whether it really is a "Cape Gun" is impossible to tell, but it is nothing more than a wall hanger. I STRONGLY recommend you check both barrels for loads. Use a cleaning rod and measure the length inside against the outside. If there appears to be enough difference to show that the barrel(s) is(are) loaded, take the gun to a gunsmith immediately.

Once the gun is known to be safe, remove the nipples and weld up the holes so no one can "restore" it and have something dangerous. Don't worry about destroying collector value - I can pretty well assure you it has none.

Jim

 

[230RN]

I'da been back in one minute.

Seriously, though that was good advice about double-checking for stuff in the barrel and making sure it is completely deactivated.

Looks rather like a Belgian Dreiling ("driilling") I looked over once. ("Drei" = "Two" in German, connoting two barrels of different calibers/bores.) Can't help with manufacturer, though....

Good conversation piece for the wall. Maybe someone five years down the road will spot it and tell you his grossvater had one just like it, and yeild more info.

'Course, you could make up stories about it... like it was Prince Stanslaw Boriscnotski's personal favorite hunting piece, and was recovered from the mud of the moat around his castle, where he dropped it when he was wounded in his last stand defending his fiefdom,

They discovered it while draining the moat to build a shopping mall, of course.

(Anything that's good for a laugh is good, right? But keep your tongue in your cheek when telling this!)

 

[Joe the Redneck]

OK, Drei is 3 in German. Zwei is 2 in German, it is a bit confusing.

"Drillings" or drei-lings were 2 shotgun barrels over a rifle barrel.

Even if the gun has no financial value, I would not weld up the flash-holes. Insure it isn't loaded and leave it go a that. I have several jezails that I'm sure are unsafe to fire and I would never consider welding them. Old weapons should be preserved as they are for the future.

Joe the Redneck

 

[230RN]

Ow! You're right. Me stupid.

Me go now.

(Let that be my worst mistake of the week.)

 

[Jim K]

Joe, I would agree if the gun is always going to be in the possession of someone who knows it should not be fired. Alas, none of us will be around forever, and more than one accident has happened because someone managed to load and fire an old gun. It has happened to me.

A customer brought in a cheap old Damascus barrel (cartridge) shotgun that he had inherited and that had had the firing pins removed, and wanted them replaced to "restore" the gun. I refused, feeling that the gun had been deactivated on purpose for safety reasons, and told him that. He insisted that he had no intention of firing the gun, that he only wanted it to look original for his collection. I still refused. He had someone else replace the firing pins, "purely for his collection"; the gun blew apart on the first shot with Magnum shells and took one of his fingers. The last I heard he was suing the gunsmith who replaced the firing pins.

Jim

 

[TangSafetyM77]

Thanks

I appreciate the information. I figure the gun is at least 100 years old? Would that be correct? The thought of checking for loads crossed my mind when I was taking the photo of the muzzle crown! I didn't know how, but the cleaning rod idea is very helpful. Will do post haste.

I am not sure about the flash-holes. They seem to be already almost rust-welded shut, there is no spring resistance in the action at all, just a floppy hammer. And the left hammer is missing. Will look good on my wall and I WILL make up a story about it. Or maybe use it as a "loaner rifle" to a newbie on their first hunt. Can you imagine someone on their first deer hunt whom I have told I have a rifle they can borrow...and then I hand them this 20 pound fence post with only one hammer? Quality camp humor.

 

[Jim K]

It probably belongs to the period 1850-1880. As for a story... "There was my great-great grandfather, surrounded by Indians, and firing as fast as he could load..." "Gee, Dad, what happened to him?" "He was killed and never had any children, so we don't exist."

Jim