What kind of shotgun do I have?
Question by Faceman: What kind of shotgun do I have?
I first thought it was an antique but then noticed it said Machine Made on the right side of the handle. On the left side there is some lettering, but it’s too worn out to be legible. It’s a double-barrel 12 gauge. Dual triggers. It has a criss cross pattern on the handle. The barrel does not hinge down, it comes completly off and seprates off from the other piece. At the end of the barrel where the shells go in, on the bottom, it has some numbers and letters. It looks like “18.0″ and “BA” right next to it. It also has the letter E over the letters LG in an oval with a small crown on top. And a V with an A or a star over it. The inside of the barrel is smooth and does not have a “twist to it”. Further up the barrel on the bottom it has “V 0061″ and even further up it has “5343″. And I just noticed it looks like it may say “BELGIUM LAMINATED STEEL” on top of the barrel. I can’t really see it, but it’s an educated guess. That is as much info I can give because there really isn’t more.
Best answer:
Answer by JD
Sounds like you have an Old/Antique Double Barrel 12 gauge Shotgun thats missing the Fore-end. If thats the case this fore-end would allow the shotgun to “break” open and then be loaded or unloaded..This Shotgun wasn’t designed to come apart into 2 pieces..it’s just missing parts.The “E” over LG markings with the Crown are PROOF MARKS.A picture would be a great help to identify what brand and make shotgun you may have……It could be English, Belgium or any number of other manufacturers, both foreign and domestic U.S. made…….
NOTE* The reference to “Belguim Laminated Steel” on the barrel refers to a manufacturing process that uses hammered steel rods to produce the steel barrel tubes..also referred to as Damascus type barrel making..Quite common
on older and antique shotguns.
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firstly, unless it has a rifled barrel for shooting slugs and nothing else all shotgun barrels are smooth, does it shoot plastic shells or is it old enough to shoot paper ones? my next guess is that it was probably made by belgium arms but browning made some of there better shotguns in belgium, if you have a local gunsmith that can reblue (sorry bout the spelling) the gun he can probably raise some of the worn lettering but this may effect the retail of the gun (but it will look alot better) or check with your local sporting good store (hunting store not like sports authority or moedells)
could be anything…around the turn of the century there were a number of gun makers that made generic firearms for big retailers….Western Auto,Sears,Montgomery Ward,etc all had “brand name” guns made to their label….Savage,Winchester,etc made their basic guns with those names on them for sale in those stores and catalogs..what you have could be any of these…
The E over the LG in the oval with the crown is a Belgium proof mark that began in 1893 and stands for “definitive black powder proof for breech loading guns, small bore guns and handguns.
You’ve already received some other good info.
My guess is it is quite valuable from your description.*
Belgium Laminated Steel, that is the same as damascus barrel.
Look at the barrel, does it look all banded? Damascus barrels/laminated steel barrels were made by taking a rod and wrapping wire around the rod, then heating and hammering the wire together into one solid peice.
Such barrels weren’t very strong and stopped being made in the 1910s or earlier. Even when new, those barrels could only handle the pressure of actual old-school black powder, NOT today’s modern ‘smokeless powder’ not even the earliest weakest ‘smokeless powder’
Such guns after 60-100 years are even weaker today, and are UNSAFE TO SHOOT
The crowned ELG proof means it was made in Belgium after 1893 and was proofed for black powder as Bferg said. The “Machine Made” part is in English…..so it was a Belgian gun made for the American market. The “machine made” stamp by itself was used by any of three companies on mass produced shotguns sold through American distributers. The “Bel Lam Steel” on the barrel was the same.
Your shotgun was made by either Noumann Bros. (Neumann Freres) or Simonis, Janssen and Dumoulin (S.J.D&Co.). The writing on the left side plate would be a store brand or pseudo maker’s name ala “Wm. Parkhurst” or “Wm. Moore & Co” or “Manton and Co.” etc etc etc. There were literally hundreds of names they were sold under.
They’re store brand guns….not really collectible. Unfortunately, outside a very small collector/fan group, they aren’t very valuable, either.
You can try gunbroker.com and search on “Noumann” etc and try to match yours to a specific model that way….or you can post a pic and we’ll try to identify it for you here.