arrgh matey....pirate gun (update)

[coosbaycreep]

shiver me timbers, the pirate gun is sold

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[Dallas Ken]

You sure come up with some interesting 'stuff'........descriptions are great also.
Too bad you are way down South.......

 

[coosbaycreep]

bump

 

[AlphaCoyote]

Geez, I'm interested, but there are so many fakes and reproductions out there. Some of them are really good, including rust or pitting to make something look authentic. So it takes a trained eye. Have you had this authenticated by a reputable historical firearms expert? I'm close to Eugene. PM sent.

 

[coosbaycreep]

Geez, I'm interested, but there are so many fakes and reproductions out there. Some of them are really good, including rust or pitting to make something look authentic. So it takes a trained eye. Have you had this authenticated by a reputable historical firearms expert? I'm close to Eugene. PM sent.

No, I haven't had it authenticated. I'm going to gunworks later today and will have them look at it though.

As far as it being a fake, Belgium was pretty much the king of old school saturday night specials and there wouldn't be much of a financial reason for anyone to have tried faking a gun like this. And as far as faking pitting, that'd be even more of a waste of time since that hurts value more than probably anything on a black powder gun since that's the biggest factor in whether or not it's safe to shoot or just a wallhanger. I don't think worm holes in the wood add to value either.

I've did some searching online about belgian proof marks and found these two websites:http://damascus-barrels.com/Belgian_All_Proofmarks.html

Belgium

According to those websites, the gun could have been made yesterday or a really long time ago. I don't know for sure, but I know my uncle bought it in the '70s and it was in bad shape then. It looks nineteenth century to me though.

proof marks:
-oval with "ELG" over a star on the barrel
-what looks like a crown with a cursive "L" or something in front of trigger guard (inspector's mark?)
-brass cap on end of grip has a circle with an E in it, and what looks like 618 below it. It looks like there may have been some other numbers/letters below that at one time, but they're worn off now.
-has some other mark on the barrel near the thing the flint hits, but I can't tell what it is