What is it? "H. PIEPER "
This gun is made in Belgium. Patented April 23, 1881 Has a Double Barrel,( side x side ) One side is for a rifle cartridge, other is shot gun. Can't find any thing that says what caliber it is..... Where to look? Who to ask? HELP!!! And if you know that gun, What's the price range? THANKS!
It will hurt you, More than it will hurt me..
It will hurt you, More than it will hurt me..
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The best way to determine caliber is to make a chamber cast using low melting point, lead-tin-bismuth alloy and have it measured up. Alternatively,using a caliper, measure the bore, the diameter of the rear of the chamber and estimate or measure its' depth and get back to us.
I would guess it's for an obsolete European black powder deer cartridge because of the date but you could be lucky.0 -
ItGoBang,
I also have one of those, and about a year ago put it up on this board with about the same question. Got several GREAT answers from several different people, foremost AntiqueDr. But for the life of me, I can't remember the jist of what they said. You might do a search for pieper arms and come up with the old post. I do remember that AntiqueDr told me that pieper was not an expensive gun, just one of the multitude of belgium gunmakers in the late 19th century that sent guns to this country. All the value mine has is sentimental. It was my great-granddads, and all it is good for is a wall-hanger. A beautiful wall-hanger though. Good luck!0 -
You have what's commonly known as a Cape Gun. Pieper made a range of weapons from ultra cheap doubles on up to some rather nice pieces. For myself, I've only seen the lower end of that range.
Your gun... Damascus construction on the shotgun. Could be anything from stub twist on up. The rifle will almost certainly be an obselete caliber or cartridge. Both will be black powder only. Neither should be considered safe to shoot with any load until the gun has been thoroughly inspected by a qualified smith.
Cape guns are interesting, but suffer disinterest here on the left bank of Big Salty. A further disadvantage is that Belgian guns are not generally regarded the respect of their German cousins. This because of the glut of cheap Belgian doubles that flooded the US market for many years in the late 1800's and early 1900's.
Even the fine German (Teutonic) guns suffer in value here despite their obvious quality. My guess is that it's somewhat the result in the difference in sporting conditions and laws between here and Europe.
As to a guess at value... A fine guild (no-name) German drilling or Cape gun can often be had for less than $800.00. Sometimes much less.
Your gun will probably suffer from the Belgian moniker to some degree (unless it demonstrates very high quality) and will suffer a penalty of about 20% under the value of a similar German gun.
Here's to hoping that you have the best of the best and that I'm as wrong as wrong can be.
Nord0 -
NORD; Made the correct call....Well Done..! I've owned several of these Pieper Cape Guns over the years and have found that if the guage was 16 then it was most likely an 8 X 57 JRS on the Rifle barrel..If it was a 12 Guage then the Caliber was a 38-55 and for the American Market as that was the Ballard and Winchester Caliber and the Americans were more apt to buy a caliber that was factory made at home...Value wise $250.00 to $300.00 is about the going price for one of these guns in Good Condition...Fine and Excellent will command more..
Captain Kirk, Tech Staff0
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