16ga.com ~ View topic - 16ga hammer gun- French St.Etienne, need help?

Member Joined: 20 Oct 2005 Posts: 69 Location: SW MO

I know it's french but it was to cool not to buy. Anyway guys I found this gun at a pawn shop on saturday. It is a 16ga, 2 1/2inch, hammer gun. It appears to be uncut and unaltered. It has a really nice piece of walnut, and is in good working order. It is not marked except on the barrel flats, where it has proof marks, and it says St. Etienne. Also it has steel barrels. I know its not a london best, but it has modest engraving and the fitting is well done. I was also surprised to see that the drop of the comb was somewhat modern. Anyway, beside knowing it's a french gun I would like to know who made it and when. Also I was wondering what if is worth. I know I havn't included pics, so a ballpark on the gun would be great. Thanks

Member Joined: 26 Apr 2005 Posts: 743

Who made it? If there's nothing anywhere on the gun except St. Etienne (plus proofmarks), it's a "guild" gun. The French gunmaking industry, much like throughout the rest of Europe (including England), worked largely the same way prior to WWII. St. Etienne was France's gunmaking center (equivalent of Liege, Belgium; Birmingham, England; Suhl, Germany; etc). There were all kinds of journeyman "outworkers" (not employed by any specific maker) who specialized in making stocks, actions, barrels, etc. It was quite common for guns to be produced by a group of these outworkers, each practicing his own specialty. Happened this way in England too, the only difference being that over there, there's almost always the "gunmaker's name" on the barrels--except he likely wasn't responsible for making the gun, maybe just finishing it and selling it. In France (and also in Germany and Belgium, quite commonly), such guns would make it to the market with no maker's name at all. I have a Belgian 16 that says "C. Mode, Paris" on the barrels--except by the proofmarks, it's clearly Belgian, not French, so whoever C. Mode was, he didn't make the gun. Just sold it. Also hard to tell when it was made by proofmarks on a French gun, but if you can describe everything you see, that would help.

To determine value is hard without further description (photos preferred). There is more of a market these days for hammerguns, so that part doesn't hurt the value like it would have in the past. But we'd need to know more about both quality and condition. Is it tight on face? How are the bores? How's the original wood and metal finish? Quality--does it have engraving? How much? Is the wood plain or fancy? How's the checkering? No name hammergun--right now, with not much to go on, might be somewhere betweeen $300-$1300, but not likely over the midpoint of that range, with no maker's name. If you can give us more info, might be able to narrow that "ballpark" down somewhat.