Getting Excited
 

I thought I would post this here since there has been a drought of Hammer Gun posts.

Breck sent me this picture of my 10 gauge Lifter barrels which he says are nearing completion. I can't wait to get them back on the gun. I am 2-3 working sessions from having the new stock done and finishing started. The original forend is done except for recutting the checkering. When I get the barrels on and the the buttstock finished, I will need to have the checkering done (I don't even try to delude myself about that) and then decide about CC on the reciever or leave it as is.

Looks great, reminds me of snake skin appearance. My 2 cents, I wouldn't CC it.

Have we seen the barrel flats on that one Art?





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lovely I too agree with the snake look....charlie

I posted them a few months ago when I bought the gun on Gunbroker. We actually corresponded about it later. It is a Grade 3 Lifter from 1880. I bought it because it is one of those guns listed in the serialization book as a Damascus gun but actually had Parker laminate barrels. I noticed this in the ad pictures so I bid. I don't remember but I may have been the only bidder. It is a 3 frame. The barrels are true 9 gauge barrels and the chambers 2-5/8. The buttstock was gone and replaced by a piece of junk from a low grade gun. It was delivered very close to when your 16 gauge lifter was delivered, and the engraving looks very, very similar to me. I will post more pictures when I get the barrels back. I got the gun at a price that a lot of people might thinkof as too much given the condition, but it was a relatively well graded gun, had rare barrels and the action and engraving is very presentable. At less than $900, I felt good about it's potential and I have a soft spot for preserving old guns.

Here is a picture of the flats.

I remember Art. You’re lucky to have bought the gun for $900. I wish my 16 was only $900….





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I bought another one not long after that which was even earlier. Serial number was in the low 4000's. It was mis-described as a 12 gauge because, as the dealer responded to a question, a 12 ga snap cap dropped right in. That gun too was a true 9 gauge bore and appears to be a $105 grade, although the Letter indicated there were no order records to reveal the order or sales info. They had only the build data. That is the gun on which I stripped the wood and ultrasonically cleaned it. I refinished the wood, microsanded and polished the damascus barrels and bored .002 out of the barrels to clean thm up. It turned out to have great wood and once I get the flat topped checkering recut, it will be a nice gun. The dealer was entirely ignorant of the guns and made several incorrect statements in the ad, which again led to the gun selling at a really low price. I have purchased several guns on line in the last few months due to people totally blowing the ad copy. The two best were a nice NID 20 listed and described as an LC Smith and a really nice 1896 6# English game gun which was listed as a 7# 28 gauge because it was fitted with tubes (the description of which indicated they were permanent). It turned out the gun had been reproofed in the 50's and apparently someone had been afraid of the perfectly good condition Damascus barrels and had installed a brand new set of Briley 28 gauge tubes. I bought the gun for less than the cost of the new tubes, which zi removed. It always pays to check auctions for generally interesting catagories, not just what you actually want.

Those are killer!

Wonderful barrels, Art.

I got a note from FedEx that they had picked them up and should be here tomorrow.

I am amazed at the few pictures of these type barrels I have seen. The regullar Damascus all are very recognizable except except for the quality and grade of the steel. These seem to vary a lot. I can see the snakeskin comment, but my first reaction was of chain Damascus that didn't come out correct. They strike ne as looking at a series of broken chain link patterns. I'll see what the impression is in real time.