GA Metro Atlanta FS Belgian 100 year old SxS rabbit ears

[GAgunLAWbooklet]

Item Name: FS Belgian 100 year old SxS rabbit ears

Location: highway 369

Zip Code: 30506

Item is for: Sale Only
Sale Price: 399

Caliber: 12gauge

Willing to Ship: Yes

Bill of Sale Required?: No

Item Description: For sale: Belgian double barrel 12 gauge side-by-side, double triggers and sidelock action. Barrels are made with twist (welded) steel construction-- similar to Damascus and not approved for modern smokeless powder.

Barrels have Belgium black powder proofs. Barrels are 30.3 inches long, 18.2mm and 18.3mm at muzzle, so one has slight constriction probably "improved cylinder" and the other seems to be a cylinder bore.

This gun has been in my neighbor's family since the early 1900's when her grandfather purchased it as a young man either right before or right after he served in the first World War.

It was passed down to her father, but after that nobody in the family had any interest in it. Not any of her brothers, her children, or her nephews.

So, it's up for sale. It was clean but dusty when I got it. I took it apart, cleaned it, brought it to Deer Creek gun shop in Kennesaw so they could give it a look over.
They said it's probably 1920s era manufacture & import, but unknown manufacturer. The trade name on the side -- Russell Arms Co. -- is certainly fictional, and done on request of some hardware store or sporting goods store / distributor.

I cut the ends off of a couple of 12 gauge shells, poured out the payload of BBs and fired the gun in my backyard just blowing the wad and shot cup across the lawn.

The hammer and triggers work. Action is smooth and reasonably tight but I'm sure not as tight as it was 100 years ago .

It has a functional extractor but no ejection; the shells only kick back about a quarter of an inch, and you pluck them out with your fingers.

The primers get a good smack from the hammers / firing pins on this exposed hammer "rabbit ear" shotgun.

The gun has some surface rust, see pictures and there looks like there's some pitting in the front of the chambers forcing cone area of the barrel. Probably from using black powder cartridges which this gun was designed for and which were quite common and popular even into the 1940s.

PS: a gun of this age probably was made with a 2 5/8 inch chamber or maybe 2 9/16, but it will definitely be shorter than 2.75 inches and therefore modern shotshells especially ones with star crimped ends should not be used in this gun. If (AND I SAY "if") IT WERE INSPECTED AND DEEMED SAFE TO SHOOT AT ALL,
then the correct ammunition would be paper-hull 2.5" shells with a cardboard cap on the end and a roll crimp.

TERMS: $399, Cash, to any Georgia resident in a face-to-face meeting. Or could be shipped to your local FFL dealer out of state if you pay the shipping fees and FFL processing fees on both ends.

LOCATION: I'm in CUMMING, but also travel regularly in Gainesville, Dawsonville, Canton, Woodstock, and Marietta.

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Pictures:

 

[GAgunLAWbooklet]

Bump.

Get this in time to hang above your fireplace in the living room,

so it can be admired when y'all sit around after Thanksgiving dinner!

 

[Necron 99]

I imagine Aguila mini bird shot shells would probably be safe to shoot.?

 

[GAgunLAWbooklet]

oh I would think so ! I didn't know they made such a thing. I've only heard about Aguila mini buckshot or slug loads.

If I can find some locally maybe I'll shoot the gun this holiday weekend and confirm that it's safe.

Let the record show I'm starting with five fingers on each hand,
total of 10.

(That's 10.0, -- just in case we have to count fractions of a finger later 😉)

 

[Necron 99]

You should be ok, I've shot them out a modern single shot very little recoil. Be safe...

 

[J45404]

It's sad that someone wouldn't want a piece of their family history, much less the ENTIRE family.

I don't care what it is; a letter, a photo, a ruler, a watch, a gun, etc., I'm going to cherish that!

 

[87KJH]

You should be ok, I've shot them out a modern single shot very little recoil. Be safe...

Recoil has nothing to do with chamber pressures.
The modern 410 bore has very little recoil, but can generate chamber pressures of 12,000 PSI

Agula mini shells produce chamber pressures in the 10,000 to 12,000 PSI range.

Classic firearms proofed for black powder are not rated to withstand the chamber pressures of modern smokeless powders.

According to the marking on the barrels, this firearm was proofed for black powder only.

For your safety and the safety of those around you, it may be best for this one to remain on the mantle.

 

[GAgunLAWbooklet]

The .410 l bore is a smaller diameter tube -- which means it has less volume to hold the expanding gases. the Aguila mini shells have only 5/8 of an ounce payload of birdshot so that's only about half of the normal payload of a 12 gauge.

DEDUCTIVE REASONING: firing half the payload weight at the same velocity as normal from the same bore diameter as normal (same volume of pressure cylinder) has to result in less peak pressure.

And, I hear that the real problem of using smokeless powder loads in black powder guns is not the "peak pressure" but how far the payload has gone down the barrel at the moment peak pressure is generated.
Smokeless powder generates this peak pressure a little bit later, closer to the forcing cone. Black powder burns faster and generates the peak pressure before any of the birdshot has gone into the forcing cone. So the walls of the chamber themselves hold all the pressure and they were made extra thick specifically for this scenario.

The extra short shot shells from Aguila seem like they should be safer because even if they generate peak pressure after the shot payload has moved some distance the payload could move 1 inch and still be in the area of the shotgun called the chamber.