Third times the charm

[OH Osthaus]

I was originally going to call this thread "no suppositories required"

but third times the charm works better - first the story (a little long winded)- then some pictures (several of them) -

The first time the gun and I met was back in October as my wife and I went through an antique show we try to attend each year, I saw a nice looking double barrel muzzle loader in the back of a booth, almost too nice. It wore good engraving with decent coverage, nice color on the metal and great wood. I thought it may have been newly built, but the dealer let me pull the barrels and there they were - correct Birmingham proofs circa 1850's or 60's and marked as a 15 gauge. and the inside of the foreend wood showed some age, so I figured it was a total refinsh, but very well done.

I liked the gun, but there was no name, not on the locks or the top rib. I considered that odd for a good quality gun and so I took a couple snap shots with the phone and told him I would think about about it. I have looked at those pictures several times since and have often wondered if I had made a mistake walking away

Then a few weeks ago, I saw the same dealer at a local gun show- he was in the process of covering his table, leaving immediately due to an emergency according to a friend of mine who was helping him put away his stuff. On the end of the table - just being covered was that same 15 gauge percussion shotgun. A quick looked confirmed it, but the dealer was on his way out. My friend told me he could get the gun set aside if I was sure - but I wasn't, since I had not taken any measurements

Then came the third time, just this last weekend. After brunch, my wife and I drove out to a antique shop we like and know the owner causally. It is a ways away, and we had not been there in a couple months. We exchanged greetings with the owner and wandered about the shop. Then I heard a voice I recognized and there was the fellow who owned the gun talking to the shop's owner. Tom, the shop owner introduced us and I asked about the gun, yes, he still had it - but had someone wanted to put a deposit on it, but he would rather sell it out right. I told him I would call him, and I did. It turned out - due to family obligations on each side, we would both be in the same general area this weekend. The meeting was set, I took a couple measurements and traded an envelope for the gun

It was proofed as a 15 gauge- which is ideally .677 inside diameter. it is just a few thousands bigger now, no doubt from a clean up during the refinishing. The wood finish and the checkering is crisp. the metal finish is good. The gun weighs 6 1/4 pounds on my chatillon scale, 29 1/2 barrels that do not look have been cut. Wall thickness is about 45 thousands as far as i can measure. Blow out plugs and incredibly shootable dimensions LOP 14 1/2 DOC 1 3/8 DOH 1 5/8

Sure do wish I knew who made this, I assume it was made in Birmingham to be resold by a provincial shop. But someone should have put their name on this nice of a gun.