What are your oldest guns?

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TheDoubleD

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New old gun came into house yesterday.

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This gun is not ordnance marked and is a pure commercial gun on the type one India Pattern Brown Bess. It is 75 caliber. It is similar to EIC muskets of the period

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Marking's seem to indicate that it was made some where between 1780 and 1810. It is marked on the barrel "Payton". It is also marked #5. Not sure the meaning of these markings. Payton could be the retailer, the name of a ship or some militia group. It is in a military configuration and the number on the tang infers part of a stand of arms.

The gun originally came out of Texas. Wonder if there are any records on arms acquired by the Republic of Texas. Did they buy guns for England?
 

TheDoubleD

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I learned today that this gun most likely belonged the Town Militia of Payton in Somerset County, England. In 1798 Napoleon formed and invasion fleet to invade England. From 1803 to 1805 in anticipation of that invasion, South Eastern England went on full alert. Every town and Village formed its own group of Volunteers into a Town Militia to protect in case of that invasion.

What you looking at in this gun is an 1805 civilian issue Assault Rifle-it does have a bayonet. An 1805 AR if you will.
 

Hworth18

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I have 2 older guns, the first was my Grandfather's Harrington & Richardson 22 Special. I can't remember the exact issue date but I think it's a 1923 model. I have an old Belgian double barrel damascus steel shotgun. It has 1883 stamped on the receiver. I've been thinking about getting it repaired and refinished but maybe a project for another day.
Belgian 1883 double barrel.jpg
Harrington Richardson 22 special.jpg
 

TheDoubleD

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Find some Kramer's Antique restorer and use on the wood and metal of the shotgun. I will clean and restore the gun. It is not extremely valuable-except to you. It is an antique and should be preserved as is. Refinishing it destroys its status and reduces it value. There is a general warning about damascus barrels being unsafe. That is not entirely true. Some damascus are indeed unsafe due inclusions or delamination. The barrel should be magnafluxed and x-rayed before shooting. Good luck with that.

If you will make a separate post on this shotgun and include clear, sharp close pictures of markings, I will research it for you. Remove the forestock, most likely by pulling down on the nose of the stock if not screwed on. Open the action and tip the barrel off. Under the barrel and on the action should be marks that will ID this gun.
 

Hworth18

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Find some Kramer's Antique restorer and use on the wood and metal of the shotgun. I will clean and restore the gun. It is not extremely valuable-except to you. It is an antique and should be preserved as is. Refinishing it destroys its status and reduces it value. There is a general warning about damascus barrels being unsafe. That is not entirely true. Some damascus are indeed unsafe due inclusions or delamination. The barrel should be magnafluxed and x-rayed before shooting. Good luck with that.

If you will make a separate post on this shotgun and include clear, sharp close pictures of markings, I will research it for you. Remove the forestock, most likely by pulling down on the nose of the stock if not screwed on. Open the action and tip the barrel off. Under the barrel and on the action should be marks that will ID this gun.

Of course I would not do any work on it myself. I seriously doubt that it would be worth getting it back into firing condition, but it might make a nice wall hanger. It's missing a hammer which would probably be hard to match without replacing both. I'll take a closer look at Id'ing it and try to get some more information for you.
 

Mr.Glock

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Glock Gen3 17C. The pistol to end all pistols. Perfection is not infinite, it reached it. I have a older Glock, but it is not a 17C. I have a Visual Loader too, it’s old.
 
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