Here's a beautiful, rare piece which is in excellent shootable condition. This "combination gun" or "Drilling", as they are called in Europe, is a rarity for several reasons. For starters, the fact that it's an American-made double barrel percussion gun without any foreign proof marks on the either of the barrels (as early as the 1830's, the U.S. required all foreign-made arms be proof tested in their country of origin in order to be imported to America) This puts it in a fairly narrow category of double guns; especially when compared to the hundreds of thousands of double guns that were produced in England and Belgium and later imported to the States. Secondly, its an "over-under" barrel configuration; which, while common today, was nearly unheard of during the 19th Century. Lastly, its a combination gun - the upper barrel features a rifled bore of roughly .45 caliber, while the bottom barrel is a 12 gauge smoothbore barrel . These combination guns were popular in Europe, where it's been historically difficult to own multiple weapons. However, these guns were never very popular in America, where one could typically purchase both a rifle AND a shotgun for roughly the same price as one combination gun.
This particular piece is an excellent condition and is all original; right down to the tapered wooded ramrods hung on either side of the barrels.
The stock is in great condition with no cracks or splits The locks both function properly on both full and half cock. The set triggers also work correctly. Speaking of which, the functionality of the double set triggers is rather interesting and unusual and bares mentioning. Instead of installing a set of shotgun style triggers in this gun, the builder has opted to install as set of double sets to allow for maximum accuracy when shooting the rifle barrel. This means, that triggers had to be modified to be able to fire both barrels. In order to achieve this, the set triggers are design such that the front trigger will fire the rifle barrel only when the rear trigger is set. When the trigger isn't set, the same front trigger is used to fire the shotgun barrel. This type of set up is very simple and effective; and takes only a little practice to become accustomed to.
Both barrels are in great shape; with bores that have minimal rust on no major pitting. The nipples in each bolster are in good condition and should unscrew without much difficulty. Both ram rods are intact and full length.
