When was this barrel made (proofed)

[frogwalking]

I recently acquired this little shotgun barrel.  I am currently trying to determine when it was made.  I know some of you folks have a library of Belgian proof marks.  Please tell me when it was proofed.  Thanks
 

[Bill Paton]

Is that garnet schist your barrel is resting on? Tell  us that story, too.  Bill Paton

[Jerry V Lape]

The capital letter G with the star above it is the proof stamp of Charlier Josef who worked 1928 -1959 as their proof  controller. The star above a V is that of another controller, Macon Isidor who worked 1929 -1953.  That is as close as you will get on date without seeing the rest of the gun probably.   The problem is they started using the star above the initial in 1877 but I have never been able to find a reference to those between 1877 and 1911 so there may have been another stamp with the G in that period which would date the barrel earlier. I note that none of the proofs shown reflect a nitro powder proof so assume this is a black powder proofed barrel.   The references clearly state the list of controllers in those earlier years is untraceable.  If we could see the gun then the style would give us some additional clues as to the age of the gun.

The little fish hook mark is probably a failed proof mark (which may have been for something like inadequate finish) which would require it to be repaired properly and reproofed which is probably why star over G appears twice on the barrel.  Proofing included more than just successful firing with proof loading.  There was also a visual inspection for other issues.  Because of the late date for a blackpowder barrel you can assume this was not a high quality product in all likelyhood.   

[frogwalking]

Thanks Jerry.  There is no rest of the gun, yet.  The barrel was never used on a gun as the tang has no hole for a tang bolt.  I am guessing the barrel came into; the US with the umpteen tons of old gun parts Turner Kirkland bought in Belgium in the '60s.

[Jerry V Lape]

See my expanded comment above.

[Hungry Horse]

 Many of these Turner Kirkland treasures were later production muzzleloaders made for trade to native peoples in Africa, and South America. They are sometimes referred to as monkey guns, since that is the game they were often used on. And, as was mentioned they were not first quality. In fact count yourself lucky to have gotten one with proofs. I bought scads of these in the early seventies, and only got a few that were proofed. That being said a friend built a canoe gun out of a 27" Kirkland 20 gauge shotgun barrel, with no proofs. That not only survived a load with an air gap between powder, and shot, that bent all the barrel pins, and the upper lock bolt, and popped a piece of wood off the end of the tang inlet, but after careful refitting, and reproofing, served him for the rest of his life.

            Hungry Horse

[frogwalking]

I made several guns from Turner's old parts back in the '60s..  The locks were junk, at least the ones I got were.  They did shoot couple of hundred times, and survived to be sold or traded.  I am reliving my childhood with this one.  My son welded the plate on an L&R bar lock and I cut a bunch off the front of so it is not greatly too large.  Now to find the cheapest piece of walnut, cherry or maple for a stock.  I got an old shotgun buttplate from Bob Roller.  I will work on this one when I get too shaky to work on one that might be worth something.

Oh.  I thought it was intended to go on a production gun for Africa of South America.  It's proof date makes that seem more likely. 

[kutter]

The 'D' with the crown above it is the bbl makers mark. I believe it's Jean Delcour-Dupont (Belgium).
IIRC, they  supplied some of the damascus/twist steel tubes to the US gun trade  too.

[doug]

the oval with the ELG* dates the gun before 1893.  After that date, the proof mark was a crown over the oval and the ELG*

cheers Doug