I nearly broke my phone. I was looking at old stuff but 80’s? AMT…? Nah.
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Let’s play the “What is it?” game!
- Thread starter cmshoot
- Start date
K
A Yugo Kordun 7.62 tokarev pistol.
Yessir.
The “Kordun” (named after a region in Croatia) was the first pistol design from Marko Vukovic, lead designer for IM Metal and later HS Produkt. HS Produkt is the company that developed and makes the Springfield Armory XD line of handguns.
The Kordun was made in 1985 for the Yugoslav Peoples’ Army, with the goal of being a softer-shooting and higher capacity sidearm than the then-standard M57 Tokarev. The Cordon is unusual in being a short recoil, flapper-locked pistol. It is chambered for the 7.62x25mm Tokarev cartridge, with (I believe) a 10-round double stack, single feed magazine. It was indeed a very pleasant pistol to shoot (and a .32 ACP version apparently even nicer), but was rejected by the Yugoslav Army for its complexity and difficult disassembly/reassembly process.
The one in the pic is kept at HS Produkt.
This submission is a gun that belongs to my neighbor ---she wants my help evaluating what it's worth which means finding out what it is. All I know for sure is it's old probably 100 to 140 years old, made in Belgium, and it is a 12 gauge cartridge shooting side-by-side shotgun with exposed hammers. The name on the gun is "Russell Arms Co." But I'm sure that's just a fictional trade name.
It's been in my neighbors family for 100 years : purchased by or given to her father's father. Now her father was a World War II vet born I think in 1919,
and its first purchaser was a World War I vet probably born around 1897.
I haven't been able to pull the forend wood off to break the shotgun down and fully expose the water table to see the proof marks and import marks. It looks like prior owners have tried prying on that wood and broke off a piece so they filed it down and re-shaped it I don't want to break off another piece pulling too hard. Maybe my neighbor will take my suggestion and bring it to a gun shop or pawnshop that does a lot of dealing an old antique firearms --perhaps Deer Creek gun shop (formerly of Marietta now in downtown Kennesaw.)
See pics.
TAKE YOUR BEST GUESSES REGARDING
--WHO MADE IT,
-- WHEN,
-- AND BY WHAT OTHER NAMES OR MODEL NUMBERS THE SAME GUN HAS BEEN SOLD.
It's been in my neighbors family for 100 years : purchased by or given to her father's father. Now her father was a World War II vet born I think in 1919,
and its first purchaser was a World War I vet probably born around 1897.
I haven't been able to pull the forend wood off to break the shotgun down and fully expose the water table to see the proof marks and import marks. It looks like prior owners have tried prying on that wood and broke off a piece so they filed it down and re-shaped it I don't want to break off another piece pulling too hard. Maybe my neighbor will take my suggestion and bring it to a gun shop or pawnshop that does a lot of dealing an old antique firearms --perhaps Deer Creek gun shop (formerly of Marietta now in downtown Kennesaw.)
See pics.
TAKE YOUR BEST GUESSES REGARDING
--WHO MADE IT,
-- WHEN,
-- AND BY WHAT OTHER NAMES OR MODEL NUMBERS THE SAME GUN HAS BEEN SOLD.
On the rib on the top of the barrels just a few inches in front of the chambers it says * TWIST BELGIUM *
But the steel does not look like Damascus steel or twist steel to me; it looks like modern fluid steel construction.
But the steel does not look like Damascus steel or twist steel to me; it looks like modern fluid steel construction.
There is a piece of brass inlaid into the bottom edge of the stock. I wonder if that is a factory feature, or a D.I.Y. mod, covering a hole where a sling stud or similar attachment hardware used to be?
I wish this one could talk........ well-loved and used for what she was designed for hence the mushroomed firring pins from hammer strikes ..........
You got a real mystery gun for sure. I did my Google fu and didn't come up with much. From the shotgun forums asking about the same gun it's always the same answers. The answers being it's a trade name gun made around 1890-1910(could be 1880s though?), no model designations were mentioned or known of just sold under the trade name depending on the mail order sporting goods retailer. Sold as inexpensive and cheap when they were brand new, they still retail on high end around 225-250 as a wall hanger. No way would I get behind the trigger of one and fire live ammo through it unless it was black powder, but even then have a gunsmith who knows these guns check it out.
The only make I could find from a forum was either Joseph Cap or H. Pieper in Belgium made the Russell Arms CO shotguns.
The old guy at deer Creek gun shop in Kennesaw, Mr. Pat Raybun, said that this shotgun is probably from the early 1900s and it looks like it is made with twisted wire construction so it is a "welded" barrel that should be treated like a Damascus barrel when it comes to potentially shooting it --- and if so, then only with the right kind of low powered black powder equivalent loads.
But he said that the barrel is thick and it looks to be in good condition, but honest wear. Some wobble in the lock-up.
He did pry off the wood for end and separated the barrel from the receiver but his small shop was crowded and I did not want to take the time to get out my camera and do any photography of the marks. I'll take the wood off again later at home to do that.
He said it was definitely sold as a field grade shotgun for working people to put meat on the table, or for somebody to guard their home or shop from intruders.
It was not a distinguished gentleman's shotgun for use at the target shooting clubs.
But he said that the barrel is thick and it looks to be in good condition, but honest wear. Some wobble in the lock-up.
He did pry off the wood for end and separated the barrel from the receiver but his small shop was crowded and I did not want to take the time to get out my camera and do any photography of the marks. I'll take the wood off again later at home to do that.
He said it was definitely sold as a field grade shotgun for working people to put meat on the table, or for somebody to guard their home or shop from intruders.
It was not a distinguished gentleman's shotgun for use at the target shooting clubs.
