Hammer Guns
 

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Bruce,

Are these your's? Nice display! Tell me about the 'C' grade(s). What ga., barrel info.... etc, I'm very much interested in learning more. I think C grade hammer guns are far and few between, I never see them.

Thanks
robin

Bruce, please tell us about that Bernard gun.

Robin,
If you want to look at C grade hammer guns I think Puglisi has three or four of them on his website.

I do not own any hammer guns, not yet anyway. These are owned by a friend who declines to post on the forum.

The C Bernard hammer is a particularly fine piece, 12ga, 30". There are some but not many out there and many are in 10ga. All original. True, Jack Puglisi has a couple available. I looked for one for close to a year, this one is the best one I know of, although a friend in SoCal who has come back to hunt with us has an absolutely outstanding 12ga C in four blade damascus that we found for him several years ago. He has carried it pheasant hunting in SoDak with us, a bit heavy for sure, but a wonderful gun.

Bruce, could you tell me the grade of the gun in the fifth photo down from top? It has some interesting engraving, the circle of arrows around the pin.

I believe that to be the $200 grade, as lifters were dollar graded. TPS p. 235. In letter grade equivalents, it would be a B grade. But somebody who really knows their lifters( not me) may be able to tell better.

$200 for a shotgun in the 1870's? When a person could buy a Winchester or Colt shotgun for what, $25? Must have been some sportsman. LtCol Custer went on a little jaunt to Montana in 1876, so it puts the date in context. Most of his troop used those clunky single shot trap door Springfields and a few used the brass framed Winchesters. This Parker is still a modern configuration, usable sporting arm and if a person has not manipulated the lifter mechanism, he is in for a treat. Too bad Custer did not see fit to restrict his visit to fly fishing on the nearby Big Horn River, as many sportsmen do now.

The ring of arrows is interesting, kind of like "punch here".

Bruce,

From my observations, I would have guessed that gun to be a C grade based on the look of the bolsters. On a $200 grade the "tear drop" (for lack of a better description) would have been a full length and gone almost to the barrels. 'C' grades were the transition grade for the "tear drop" because the 'D' didn't have it and the 'C' had a short one like the one in that picture and the 'B' and up had full length "tear drops".

Based on that alone I would guess the one above it is also a 'C'?

Robin

Robin,
I think I must disagree with you regarding the long tear drops. From what I've learned from some of our more experienced members the longer tear drops as shown in the third photo were on the very early $250.00 guns. I could be wrong as I am no expert just relaying what I have been told. A few years ago I believe it was Chris Lien who posted a paper which had drawings of the bolster engravings of the various grades but I think they represented the later guns. I still have that drawing at home somewhere and will try to find and post it later.

I've been told that its often difficult to tell between some of the dollar grades and a letter is usually very helpful, provided the price before discounts can be determined. I don't know that much about the dollar grades.