The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post

arcticap · May 20, 2009, 01:48 AM

My guess is that it's not much more than about 20 years old.
Anything is possible regarding the origin of the barrel, especially if there is no clear indication where it was made.
However the rest of the rifle sure looks like it was made in Spain though.
One way to find out is to take the barrel off and to examine it thoroughly.
I would think that a Douglas barrel would have a nipple with American threading and not a standard CVA nipple with metric threading which is 6X1mm.
Look to see if the hooked breech is the same as on the Spanish CVA rifles, and if the rifling is any deeper.
About the nickeling, does the barrel lettering look like it was stamped before or after any nickel plating was applied? Do the letters look like they were filled in with the nickel plating at all?
Could the barrel just be highly polished steel?
Sometimes an owner or builder will have things like nickel plating done to a barrel, especially of it was a kit gun. If the nickeling was done at the factory, it should coat the inside of the barrel too. But if there was nickel inside of the barrel, then maybe it wouldn't be so rusty.
Considering that the bore is rusty, I don't think that the rifle is worth any more than what you paid for it. And if you can't fix up the barrel enough to get it to shoot very well, then you got what you paid for, i.e. - a lock, a stock and a barrel that needs some work, possibly needing to be either rebored or replaced.
Can you take some more pictures of the barrel, including some close ups of the nipple, lettering, hooked breech, crown etc...?

May 20, 2009, 01:48 AM	#12
arcticap Senior Member Join Date: March 15, 2005 Location: Central Connecticut Posts: 3,166	My guess is that it's not much more than about 20 years old. Anything is possible regarding the origin of the barrel, especially if there is no clear indication where it was made. However the rest of the rifle sure looks like it was made in Spain though. One way to find out is to take the barrel off and to examine it thoroughly. I would think that a Douglas barrel would have a nipple with American threading and not a standard CVA nipple with metric threading which is 6X1mm. Look to see if the hooked breech is the same as on the Spanish CVA rifles, and if the rifling is any deeper. About the nickeling, does the barrel lettering look like it was stamped before or after any nickel plating was applied? Do the letters look like they were filled in with the nickel plating at all? Could the barrel just be highly polished steel? Sometimes an owner or builder will have things like nickel plating done to a barrel, especially of it was a kit gun. If the nickeling was done at the factory, it should coat the inside of the barrel too. But if there was nickel inside of the barrel, then maybe it wouldn't be so rusty. Considering that the bore is rusty, I don't think that the rifle is worth any more than what you paid for it. And if you can't fix up the barrel enough to get it to shoot very well, then you got what you paid for, i.e. - a lock, a stock and a barrel that needs some work, possibly needing to be either rebored or replaced. Can you take some more pictures of the barrel, including some close ups of the nipple, lettering, hooked breech, crown etc...? Last edited by arcticap; May 20, 2009 at 12:09 PM.