Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Muzzleloaders Trying to identify antique muzzleloading shotgun

I am trying to identify an antique double barrel caplock muzzleloading shotgun I have acquired. Pictures of the gun and all the markings I can find can be seen at: http://photobucket.com/RonMuzzleloadingShotgun

Any help anyone can provide would be appreciated.

doc .
i would say from the barrel markings its mid to late 19th century "1800's"Belgium. i would lean more to later then earlier .
most likely a lower end import piece .
as near as i cant tell " the pictures aren�t to clear on my end " the barrel control marke is Liege IE Belgium. but the Liege mark is one of about 1811 use right on up through about 1890 something .this also could have a crown on top during this time . this is the mark that is a circle with ELG and a star inside .

JLF is probably the barrel maker , sometimes the inspectors would also mark their initials . The other markings on the barrel are actual bore size at time of inspection . that�s the 18.4 .
The rest would be proof marks and provential markings .
During this time frame , the barrels were made separate. Locks to . They would be sent to an assembler or gun smith and put together into a piece .
If your real lucky on the locks will be a name or other markings on the inside that may help narrow it down some .
However these were also made for a market so anyone�s name could be placed on the outside of the locks . Everything from the importer to a company name to even the original owner , you just cant tell .
Inside however should be also markings that would help

hope that gives you a start but frankly i must stell you that tracing down the actual maker of one of these is almost impossable

Thanks. I guess I will just have to be content with having and shooting it and not be so concerned about where it came from.

well as i said , its a belgium peice , so you know where it came from , just not who made it .

do yourself a favor if your shootingit though . keep a close eye on the bore . if she starts to pit , have it lined and re breeched .
also dont go over board on the charges .
shes old and so are her barrels

Beautiful old smoothbore, and quite a pretty picture with that bird...

It seems to be a Belgian IMO too.

You can find lots of information about Belgian guns on those sites.

http://pagesperso-orange.fr/mallorquina/source/page0index.htm

There you can possibly retrieve the manufacrurer, the controller or the age of a Belgian made gun from the marks.

http://www.littlegun.be/arme%20belge/a%20a%20site%20belge%20fr.htm

There, you can find many informations about manufacturers. There were plenty of them.

If you send good pictures of the gun to the little gun team, and allow them to publish them, they can help you identifying your gun.

Anyway, if it is a Belgian Gun, it has been made after 1830.