An acquaintance referred a guy to me yesterday that has an old shotgun that has been passed down to him through several generations of his family.

He would like to know what it is, where it's from and what it's worth. He would consider selling it to an interested collector.

The barrels are damascus and measure 16mm at the muzzle. The chambers measure 19 mm. There are no identifying marks visible on the exterior of the gun. I could see some proof marks on the bottom of the chambers, but could not remove the forend to photograph them.

There is a very faint engraving of a game bird on the bottom of the trigger guard and a female deer on one side of the action. On the other side there is a faint engraving of what appears to be a male roebuck.

Due to the wood ornamentation on the pistol grip and the roebuck engraving, my guess is that it is of european origin.

The hammers fall on flats on the top of the receiver striking holes in the barrels above both chambers. It appears that the cartridges must have been some form of pin-fire.

The pistol grip is broken and has been patched with metal strips and screws.

Click this WEBSHOTS link to view photos of the Mystery Shotgun.

Any information you could provide will be appreciated.

Please adress the problem with showing the pics and I will try to give them a good Swedish look over.

Best regards Christian a.k.a the Swede.

Sorry, everyone. I screwed up the hyperlink to the WEBSHOTS album in my first post and the photos were not coming up.

I couldn't understand why there had been over 170 views and only 1 reply!

It should be fixed now, so please take a look and help identify the Mystery Shotgun.

Mark, it is a 20 gauge a far as the bore but the chamber is a skosh larger. The manufacturer was the Old Sumbich Gun Company. That was not the original name of the company. It began as he New Sumbich Gun Company but they rarely sold any guns so as time went on they changed the name to reflect the age of the inventory.

The best place for a legitimate answer would be here.

"Sumbich" would also be my first guess but there are some strong similarities to the Schilling:

German Guns . Com

Thanks, Chic. I posted the same message on the doublegun forum as you suggested and have already received a response that appears to agree with the information Nick's link provided.

Well Mark ...... First off never take gun photos against a white back round Gabardine or blood red is the best. Photos that are needed are a full photo right, left, bottom and top. These are full photos of the gun. If you provide that most of the butt heads like me and many others the frequent this forum can tell you what country it was born in. To get more, take photos of the action complete top, bottom, and both sides. If you want even more! Clean the parts of all oil. Then rub all of the names and proof marks with welders chalk and wipe the excess away and take close ups of all the marks. Old gun plumbers and collectors may be able to help you. Be advised that many companies do not make the meaning of their proof marks open to the general public. As for your gun, pretty vague but I would say it was made in Scotland around 1880. Its decidedly a pin fire rifle under lever operated.
Rod Henrickson

I managed to remove the forend and clean up the barrels enough to photograph the proof marks and serial number.

All the photos are in this WEBSHOTS album.

BTW, the barrels are 30 1/2" long.

With this additional info. maybe someone can identify the who, what and where about this old shotgun!

Well I have never seen those proofs before. They would be clearer and if you photographed them on a darker back round and rubbed them with chalk to high lite them. The barrels were formed from what is called band Damascus. This is the oldest and cheapest form of Damascus steel. It has no flaming bomb which would indicate it was made in Belgium and it has no British proof marks. The fact that it is an under lever gun with the styling makes me stay with my original guess. It looks Scottish around 1880. Value ............. what ever some one wants to pay for it. I wont offer you even $10.00 sorry! Rod Henrickson