Please help me identify this shotgun

[Alex]

Hello, 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. 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.

 

[Jim K]

Oh, boy. Hanquet is a pretty common name in Belgium, and would appear to be the maker, though I can't track it further. I think you will probably find Belgian (Liege) proofs on that gun.

Heby is a town in Sweden. I think the engraved part is the retail dealer. It could be the original owner, but I think the dealer is more likely as it is common practice in Europe for the dealer to put his name on fine guns along with the maker. Ejecteur Hanquet Brevete' Acier Extra Fin means "Ejector (type), Hanquet patent, Extra fine steel".

Maybe the dealer can help further, maybe by knowing the previous owner.

Jim

 

[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?

 

[SDC]

The "ELG" over a star just means that this shotgun has passed the Belgian proofing tests; the "12C" in a diamond shows that this shotgun is chambered for 12 gauge, with a choked barrel; the scroll "EL" is a "provisional" proof mark (the manufacturers didn't want to waste time building a gun that would fail the proof test, so they tested the barrels before they were assembled into a shotgun); the numbers 17.4/18.2 and 17.7/18.2 show the internal diameter of the bore at 18.2mm from the breechface; and the D2 and JA are the inspector's marks who certified that this shotgun passed the official proof test.
HTH

 

[Jagermeister]

The only thing I have on Hanquet, is Hanquet Duina, SXS's, Belgium 1983

JM