Rifle or Shotgun? Strange Double Barrel (pics)

[4INCHSMITH]

A friend of mine's father asked me to take some pictures of an old blackpowder gun of his, most of all he would just like to know what it is. He would never sell it but approximate value would be some good information to give him.

I appologize because I did not have the opportunity to take measurements such as barrel length, caliber, or OAL.

The gun is a double barrelled black powder rifle/shotgun combo. Both barrels appear to be of damascus type and are via primer cap. The bore of the smoothbore barrel appears to be smaller than that of a modern 12ga shotgun (no choke). The rifled barrel has hexagonal rifling, thats right, hexagonal. The sights are a post front and notch rear and very tiny, about the size of those on a 1911 (like a Springfield GI). The ONLY markings on the gun are the words "IOS WINKLER IN AUGSBERG" engraved along the top rib of the barrels. I have no idea of the guns age but there is plenty of patina.

Sorry for the dark pics, we were in the basement and it was raining outside.

[4INCHSMITH]

More pics

[4INCHSMITH]

Couple more

[Jim Watson]

A side-by-side combination gun is commonly known as a Cape Gun because they were popular in Cape Colony, South Africa.

Herr Winkler of the old city of Augsberg, Germany is obviously the maker or at least the selling dealer.

I won't guess the age except to say mid-19th century, or value at all.

[PetahW]

While your pics are unusually dark, making specifics hard to identify, it looks like you have a typical German Cape Gun, complete with it's ornate horn trigger guard - from the muzzle-loading era, before cartridge guns became popular.

Josef Winkler was part of a German gunmaking family that later presumeable relocated from Ausberg to Ferlach when breechloaders came into common use, to integrate themselves within the cottage industry(s) there.

AFAIK, Winkler usually made some sort of ornate combination gun, like (but not limited to) your Cape Gun - like double-rifle drillings, vierlings, and other Bavarian/Bohemian types of firearms.

There are many, more modern, Josef Winkler combination guns F/S on various websites - let google be your friend.

Combination guns have always been popular in Europe, due to the political and financial limitations on the ownership of multiple firearms - since a single gun could serve in many different capacities.

Many of the makers also used their own ideas for rifling barrels, or tried the flavor of the month, in a never-ending quest for better performance.

.

[4INCHSMITH]

So I take it that the "I" in "IOS" on top of the barrel was in fact a "J". Cool, I didn't know about the term "cape gun" and the full name of Josef Winkler is a big help. Thank you. I'm gonna hit google now.


...hmmm. All I can seem to find is information on much more modern centerfire guns made in Ferlach. Also the gunmaker seems to share his name with a modern-day German politician. Does anyone know where I can get some more information on this? Particularly the guns made in Ausberg. Books, online, anything. Any help is much appreciated.

[mapsjanhere]

The way I read it, the town name is more likely Augsburg, a mid size city in Bavaria. The German name for a gun like that is "Buechsflinte".