circa 1890 stevens side by side 12 guage?

[Hardy]

I aquired this stevens hammer coach gun that appears decent but I noticed under the hand stock or grip under barrels has a serial # 16382. I was told that the old coach guns of this type had no serial #s but I was told by a reputable dealer that it was not a 1968 repro. I could find nothing substantial thru research to find out. Its beautiful but has small bubble crack in the outside frame on the finishing. Um--Is this an original and is that crack affecting the safety or the integrity of the steel or is this just an outside plate. I know very little about shotguns.
WBH

[Driftwood Johnson]

Howdy

Some of the old Stevens shotguns had serial numbers, some did not. I have a couple of 311s that have no serial numbers.

However this Model 250 from around 1908 or so does carry a SN.



The SN appears in several places; on the frame under the barrels, underside of the fore end plate, and underside of the barrels. If your gun has a SN, it will appear somewhere on the frame, not just on the barrels. I doubt it was originally a Coach Gun, probably somebody cut it down for Cowboy Shooting. Coach guns were not as common as many think, most shotguns had full length barrels for bird hunting.

Cannot tell from your description whether or not it is safe to shoot. Take it to a gunsmith who is familiar with old guns. Don't shoot it until you find out if it is safe.

[Hardy]

The little bubble crack is right under the stevens stamp --as shown on your pic unfortunately I bought it from a reputable gunsmith/dealer---I did not notice the crack until I was ready to clean . It is very small though> There are no serial #s on gun except under wooden grip as I said. I'm just curious . I was sceptical about age since that part of frame has brown bluing (Or burnt in )--did not know for sure they did that back then. I told him that I thought this gun was reproduced in 1968 w/hammer----He said No! He swore the gun was from 1890 to 1910---Anyway , I found nothing on the net to show anything about old stevens hammer shotguns except an old 1878 but no value given to it. All the rest are hammerless. I guess I just wanted a hammer sotgun and had my check book w/ me--Jeez I hope I didn't buy a 100 gun for 400

WBH/

[Bishop Creek]

Take Driftwood Johnson's advice and have a gunsmith check it out. I used to have one just like it, made around 1905 or so, had fluid steel barrels and the smith recommended that I shoot only black powder shells through it, which was ok by me as that was my intention anyway. Sold it about 12 years ago and bought a "newer" gun; a 1927 Riverside Arms (also made by Stevens) outside hammer double.

if you don't want to reload yourself, Buffalo Arms has black powder shells:

http://www.buffaloarms.com/Black_Pow...o_pr-4273.aspx

[Driftwood Johnson]

The shotgun at the top of the photo is a side lock hammered double. This means the lockwork (hammer, tumbler and hammer spring) are attached to the undersides of the side plates. The side plates sit in recesses in the frame and the stock and are held onto the gun with one screw through the stock. The screw head can be seen behind the hammer. The sideplates lend no real strength to the gun, they are just the mounting plates for the action. This is a very old style of gun design, Flintlocks used this method of construction and so did most of the percussion rifles and shotguns. If there is a crack in one of the sideplates, it does not necessarily weaken the gun, but you have to ask, why did the plate crack? Have a gunsmith inspect the gun.



The shotgun at the bottom of the photo is a box lock Stevens. All the action parts are within the frame. This gun is from about 1916 or so.