12 Gauge Lifter #1102

[Matt Buckley]

I recently stumbled into this 12 gauge lifter on a Twin Cites, Minnesota gun shop website. I liked the beautiful wood on this lifter and the light 7 pound weight for a 12 gauge so I purchased it and sent in for a letter. The barrels are 30" Laminated Steel and seem fairly thin at the breech compared to later guns. The firing pins are 1 1/16" apart which would corelate to a #1 frame. The MWT 7" from the muzzle are .010 and .016. The bores have some very light pitting about 1/2 of the barrel from the breech. I wonder if the other half were polished out at some point. The top rib is also letting go in a spot a couple inches from the muzzle. The gun locks up tight and is on face. The frame appears to maybe have been browned at some point. The trigger guard is early enough not to have the serial # on the outside but when I pulled it off the stock the serial # is stamped on the inside.

This gun was sent to W.A. Fulmer of Hamburg Iowa which is a town close to the Missouri River in SW Iowa, about 250 miles from where I live to the SW. A quick google search of W.A. Fulmer revealed that he was the editor of the Hamburg Democrat newspaper from 1870-1881.

A couple of interesting things about the letter were that the gun was shipped in 1877 even though I would have thought this gun to be a much earlier lifter. Lifter #1103 was shown in the Fall 23 Parker Pages (picture included) and was listed as a 1873. The second interesting thing is the letter lists this as having Damascus barrels but they are Laminated Steel. The top pin in the lifter mechanism is plugged as well on this gun.