french shotgun ??

W

wayne walsh

Inactive
I have shotgun but know nothing about it, there are engravings on most of the metal parts of the gun except the barrels. Near the hammers on each side is a engraving of what looks like a fly with the letters D on one wing, and on the other wing is the letter L, on the underside of the barrel it says NON POUR BALLE 17.4 in french I am not sure about the 4. On the other barrel it says 17.8 It has damascus barrels with a circle with the leters ELG and a star inside the circle. The stock has a small amount of checkering on it near the front.
can anyone help me here, and is it worth anything?
THANKS
 
'NON POUR BALLE ' means "not for ball", aka "not for slugs", and is a pretty common marking on older, tightly choked guns, made for shot & wingshooting.

YMMV, but for me, an old damascus hammer gun is a wallhanger only, and that's what I value them as.

.
 
The "ELG" in a circle is an older Belgian proofmark, and French is one of the official languages of Belgium; as said above, this gun should really never be fired again, but would probably make a nice wall-hanger.
 
A lot of Belgian guns with Damascus Barrels can be safely fired with the proper Ammo. Only one who is thoroughly knowledgeable of Damascus barrels should make the deision as to their safety..JFC
 
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