Brownson Slocum & Hollins

P

PDM88

Inactive
Brownson Slocum & Hopkins

I'm trying to identify a shotgun that my dad inherited. It has been in my family for generations, and was it was a rite of passage for boys to take it hunting until around 1940. I know very little about firearms and I don't have a digital camera with me, but I'll try to describe it. It's a muzzle loader double barrel side by side with exposed hammers. The barrels are 31 inches. I think its a 10 gauge, since the bore is a little over .75 inches. It reads 'Brownson Slocum & Hopkins' on the lock plates. By doing a quick search, I found they were located in NYC in 1859 and 1860. There aren't any visible markings on the barrels. I'm sure it's really difficult to ID without pictures, but any information would be appreciated. Sorry if this isn't the right forum; the mods can move it if it's not.

Thanks

Pat
 
Last edited:
IMHO, you've already ID'd your shotgun about as much as is most likely possible, w/o travelling to NYC to examing the NY Public Library archives for any possible records of the company beyond what's already listed in the 1860 City Directory.

FWIW, there were many, many small gunmakers in business prior to the Civil War, who made few, poorly marked guns, and were even worse record keepers.

Any such, of the era, were most likely just making basic firearms as rapidly as possible in order to make a living wage.

.
 
That name may not be the maker, but the importer or seller. Have you removed the barrels from the stock. Any markings on the underside of barrels.
 
Retailers having their names put on products if they place a large order is an old tradition, continuing to the present day. So, Brownson Slocum & Hopkins may well have been a hardware store. But, while the names are not uncommon, a man named Slocum did patent a Smith & Wesson front loading "evasion" revolver that was made by the Brooklyn Arms Co., and a man named Hopkins was a partner in Hopkins & Allen, a large gun company from post-civil war to 1915. Whether there is any connection, I don't know and it would take considerable research to find out, but the names of two fairly well known gun makers could mean that there was a 'Brownson Slocum & Hopkins' that actually made guns.

(That the gun is percussion means little; there could have been a family connection and for that matter a man could easily have been involved in making percussion guns in the 1850's and then be making other guns 10, 20, or even 50 years later.)

Jim
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top