Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Anybody Ever Seen One of These?

Grandpa pulled this out the other day (guy's full of surprises). He believes it to be a 19th century dueling, made in Belgium, and brought to the States from England by his grandfather.

The only distinguishable marks I could notice were a "B" with a crown over it, and a "U" with a crown over it; I tried to take a picture of these but the macro function on my phone wasn't working so hot.

Any intel. is greatly appreciated!

Doubt that's a dueling pistol. More likely an early target piece.

looks more like a target piece to me aswell....likely for the "parlor shooting" that was popular....

seen one like that NRA Close to this one they said target

The class of guys who got into duels usually shot much fancier pistols. Those who didn't duel shot each other with whatever firearm they had handy.

The B and the U under a crown could be German proofmarks. The B means, that the pistol was imported into Germany. These pistols were common in the time between 1890 and 1920. They were targetpistols, what doesent mean, "matchtarget." Only for funshooting. Many of them were made in Belgium, this could be the reason for stamping it with the B.

The B mark in Belgian proof marks was not supposed to be used to indicate a Belgian Origin. The Liege proof testing range marks should allow to be sure it's a Belgian gun.

If those marks are Belgian marks, each a letter with a crown upon it, they should be the personal marks identifying the official appointed controllers who proof tested the gun.

Are those marks looking likt that one ? http://mallorquina.pagesperso-orange.fr/source/be12.jpg

Looks like a typical Flobert pistol to me with that hinged breach action. In rather nice condition though. Probably chambered 6mm Flobert aka .22 short.

Search google images for "flobert pistol" and you will see plenty of examples. Some more crude than your, and some of much higher style.

Thanks to all for the input!

Veneur- the marks look just like the one you've pictured.

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=303442153

Picture number 5 of this posting has the same markings.

So I'm pretty sure those marks are the controllers' marks. Unfortunately. Any other indications on that gun ?

I don't recall seeing anything significant on it. I will have to examine it again next time I am up there visiting him.

The B with crow is an German mark to indicate, that the weapon is made outside Germany. It dont mean, that is was made in Belgium, although it begins with a "B". Capitalletters with the shown sort of a crown above it are German proofmarks until 1939. The belgian proofmarks dont have any crowns.The english proofmarks have crowns too, but with another shape.

Some belgian proof marks do have crowns (at leats 17 kinds of official belgian proof marks are crowned as you can see: http://mallorquina.pagesperso-orange.fr/source/page2.htm), and a letter such as a "B" with a crown on a belgian gun is a proof test bank controller's personal ID mark.

It is necessary to find the main proof test bank mark to be sure of th� country of origin if there is no clear identification of the gunsmith.

Seems you are a specialist. I only know the normal proofmarklists. But if I see it right, the letter combined with a crown is for the time 1853 - 1877?

No, I'm certainly not (we had a true specialist here at the campfire but it's been a long time he's not posting anymore), I'm just used to some walloon documentation written in French I used to consult to find informations about my own firearms. That website and littlegun's websites are two very dense sources of informations about Liege and Belgian gunsmithing.

You're right about the time period. Later came the letter with a star controller identification system. As you can see in the table, since 1877 we can possibly identify the names of the controllers who personnaly tested the gun or some of its components. But as mentioned above, there is no sure indication that gun is from Belgium and that marks are from Liege.

I just had a look at the "picture number 5", which is posted by GoDucks1. They look exactly(!) like the German proofmarks I spoke of.
I dont know, if the pistol was made in Belgium. It was just a conjecture, because many were made there. In any case the pistol is not made in Germany, because the B with crown means, that the weapon is foreign made.
Are we on the right way now?