Author Topic: Barrel identification help please  (Read 3305 times)

Offline msellers

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Barrel identification help please
« on: August 01, 2017, 06:12:11 AM »
I am a new member who has been following this site for a few years, so if I am posting somewhere incorrectly please help to direct me to correct area. I have a barrel that I am assuming is a British pistol barrel based off of length and stamping. It is also approximately 62 cal if this helps any. But I am looking for any help identifying this I can get. I am considering using it in a unique build, but don't want to ruin something of interest or value. Please, any help or direction is appreciated.





« Last Edit: September 14, 2021, 07:32:24 PM by Tim Crosby »

Offline msellers

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Re: Barrel identification help please
« Reply #1 on: August 01, 2017, 06:56:43 AM »
Better pic of proof stamps


Offline Dave B

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Re: Barrel identification help please
« Reply #2 on: August 01, 2017, 08:29:42 AM »
Awesome pistol barrel. I would venture to say that it may have been a holster pistol from the Georgian period. The view and Proof stamps with the large crown ciphers ?  Mean ??? Maybe tower manufacture. The service pistols i believe used an additional broad arrow stamp. It would make a dandy Georgian pistol. Jim Chambers small round face flint lock and the Moses Brent castings from the Rifle shoppe and Bob's Your Uncle you've got a first rate job done. I have gotten my English walnut from Ron Scott for my English pistols. It is first rate to work with. My first was a Sea service pistol using an original contract pistol barrel but in .52 cal.  The barrel was only 11.5 " long. Yours is much nicer. Good luck with your project
Dave Blaisdell

Offline msellers

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Re: Barrel identification help please
« Reply #3 on: August 01, 2017, 08:51:52 AM »
Dave, thanks for your idea. Any clue what the maker stamp in the first picture is? Appears to be IH & co possibly. Not having much luck locating much info though. I was considering using the barrel to build a small concept canoe gun or similar. But if it is orginal, I kinda hate to do that now. Make something that could have been seen from repurposed  guns and parts to far in disrepair to be used still.

Offline Seth Isaacson

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Re: Barrel identification help please
« Reply #4 on: August 01, 2017, 04:10:47 PM »
Those crown ciphers are suspect to me. They are slightly different, and I don't think I have ever seen a British pistol with two ciphers on the barrel. The proofs are London Gunmakers’ Company private proof and view marks, not the government markings, so this was originally on a commercial gun not a military weapon. Officers bought their own sidearms though, so it could still have been used in military service. It is possible they were marked with the royal cipher because they were bought into the government stockpile after they had already been made; that seems unlikely to me, and the fact that there are two royal cipher stamps used also seems odd. You often see funky markings on trade guns out of North Africa and the Middle East though. Perhaps that is where the gun it was on was sent.
I am the Lead Historian/Firearms Specialist at Rock Island Auction Co., but I am here out of my own personal interests in muzzle loading and history.
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Offline msellers

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Re: Barrel identification help please
« Reply #5 on: June 02, 2018, 09:47:27 AM »
Those crown ciphers are suspect to me. They are slightly different, and I don't think I have ever seen a British pistol with two ciphers on the barrel. The proofs are London Gunmakers’ Company private proof and view marks, not the government markings, so this was originally on a commercial gun not a military weapon. Officers bought their own sidearms though, so it could still have been used in military service. It is possible they were marked with the royal cipher because they were bought into the government stockpile after they had already been made; that seems unlikely to me, and the fact that there are two royal cipher stamps used also seems odd. You often see funky markings on trade guns out of North Africa and the Middle East though. Perhaps that is where the gun it was on was sent.
Sorry to revive this thread, but I finally got good usable pictures of the stamps and cyphers. The crown cypher definitely has a different look and feel with these better pictures.
Thanks,
Mike









Offline Pukka Bundook

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Re: Barrel identification help please
« Reply #6 on: June 02, 2018, 04:35:58 PM »
I don't know, but the London proof and view marks look a little off to me.   Not at all sure  though, and it may be camera angle.

The stamped lettering looks like an over-stamp, and it is confusing it a bit....  I will add these new images on the 'other" channel for you, and see what we can determine!

Very best,
Richard.

Offline msellers

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Re: Barrel identification help please
« Reply #7 on: June 02, 2018, 05:40:14 PM »
I don't know, but the London proof and view marks look a little off to me.   Not at all sure  though, and it may be camera angle.

The stamped lettering looks like an over-stamp, and it is confusing it a bit....  I will add these new images on the 'other" channel for you, and see what we can determine!

Very best,
Richard.

I will try and get different pictures of the view and proof stamps, the lighting was was horrible even with my good work lamp. See if we can get a more usable view.

Mike

Offline James Rogers

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Re: Barrel identification help please
« Reply #8 on: June 02, 2018, 06:38:21 PM »
The tang/breech engraving, barrel shape, etc. looks 18th century to me but other than tower crosse stamps I cant recall any GP and V (proof and view) marks made with relief stamps in that period. All I can recall were done with an intaglio stamp.

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Re: Barrel identification help please
« Reply #9 on: June 02, 2018, 10:37:44 PM »
I knew a gent that made a "Canadian Civil Service Pistol"
It wont work and you cant fire it!!
Bob