How to get info on a guild gun

[vinniesguns]

I will post pictures when it arrives, before you ask, but I bought an 1880's side by side 12 ga. made in belgium that was a guild gun. It has no makers mark, but it does have a serial number. How do I trace it, to see who made it, when it was made etc. and how do I find out its true value.
Thanks for any help.

[Mike A]

The best way I know is to go to www.doublegunshop.com, click on the "Doublegun BBS" discussion forum, register (it's free), click on the first thread, and ask your question. The posters who hang out there are very knowledgeable about all doubles. You will get your best answer if you can post close up pix of the markings on the bottoms of the barrels ("barrel flats") and on the top flats of the reciever when the barrel and forend are removed ("water table"). If you can't post pix, then describe ALL the markings as best you can, including ones in French (someone there can translate those).

A good description (or better, pix) of the guns OUTSIDE and the inside of the bores would help with valuation. When you take the forend off, do the barrels wiggle sideways much, for example? (If they do, it's a bad thing, called being "off face." Not worth fixing unless the gun is a gem....). Are the barrels damascus or twist steel or fluid steel? That can affect the safety and the value of the gun (But DON'T assume you can't shoot a damascus barreled gun--it depends on many details of manufacture and condition). Does it have hammers? Two triggers or one? Ejectors or extractors? Engraving? How much? What's the wood like? Condition?

Belgian guns come in all flavors and qualities--from dangerous crap to some of the best guns ever made. Most fall somewhere in between; hope yours is a good one, not as they say "JABC" ("Just Another Belgian Clunker").

Another good source is a Belgian gun site called something like www.littleguns.com--it lists all the trade marks of the MANY Belgian gunmakers, and other info. Probably a search for littleguns would find it.

Good luck in your research--should be fun!

[vinniesguns]

Awesome information, really appreciate it. Got the gun today, barrel are tight bores are good. Action locks up tight. Has two hammers and two triggers, barrel say laminated steel, look like damascus. Has extractors. Finish on barrels is gone and looks like color case hardened frame has worn down so you can barely see the colors. Overall very nice shape.

[mjsweims]

Good luck in your search. I have an Austrian (Ferlach) guild gun built in 1929. Unfortunately, and you may find the same thing, many of the records of the proof houses, and arms manufacturers were destroyed in WWII.
You can also try California side by side society http://www.casidebysidesociety.com/c...y/Welcome.html
Enjoy your new sxs.

[Mike A]

If it says "Laminated Steel" in English, it was made for export to US or at least English-speaking countries. Many, not all, of these guns were utility grade doubles sold thru various mail-order outlets like Sears and Wards and thru hardware store chains. They tend to get lumped together by gun snobs as "farmer guns" and "hardware store guns." However, they were often the only guns our ancestors could afford and many have interesting family histories connected with them. And they did the jobs they were made to do--killing varmints, killing food, and defending the farm and home.

Vinniesguns, I was raised on a ranch up above Rohnert Park on Sonoma Mtn. (I think it is now called Jacobs Ranch Park, part of the regional park system above Crane Creek Regional Park). We had such a Belgian "farmers gun" very much like what you have described. It was made by Pieper (a very large Belgian firm) and had the brand name "Bayard." Laminated steel barrels and went "boom" every time--we shot modern shells in it, which probably wasn't smart....