Pittsburgh Firearms Co.

R

Roamin_Wade

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I have an old Damascus twist double barreled 16ga external hammer shotgun with intricate scroll work that has in the banners on each side "Pittsburgh Firearms Co." It has Birmingham England proof marks from circa 1870-1885 but that is as far as I can trace its provenance. Does anyone know who may have made this shotgun and if so, what it may be worth in the round-a-bout unseen wall hanger collectibility price?
 
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I live about 150 miles from Pittsburg and it's not uncommon to find old mule ears so marked. There is two stories on this, they imported parts and assembled in Pittsburg or
it was just importing them with the name stamped in them. Guys that collect Muzzel loaders
call unsigned rifles with Belgian locks & barrels, Pittsburg Guns because locals bought these
parts out of Pittsburg and made them up into rifles. A lot of the guys who were listed as
gunsmiths back in this period actually were putting together "kit" guns. They are original but not worth much compared to a original hand made gun, by documented Smith.
 
Living about 80 miles from Pittsburgh, i had never known that.
Nor have i run accross one yet.
Of course i will be looking for them now. :D:

Thank you for that information!
 
Lots of good information in this thread...

http://www.doublegunshop.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=87134

It appears that PFC was an importer/seller, and mostly of shotguns.

According to some other sites, PFC was in business from 1860 to 1882 and headed by J. Palmer O'Neil.

The company imported Wesley Richards shotguns under the PFC name. If your gun has English marks, then it's most likely a Wesley Richards-made gun.

Even so, these guns don't bring that much.


It looks like O'Neill died in 1883-1884, and the company folded.
 
I wonder if Westly Richards made their own barrels or farmed them out to Belgium? The
Pittsburg guns I have seen were far from mint but not the workmanship you would expect
from WR. I was never much interested in that type of gun and just took sellers word that
gun was made in Belgium. Many SxS twist guns were and branded for company or store
over here. I have had Greeners, Parkers and Colts from this eara and I will have to say the
slickest one was the Colt. I think the Colt had Belgian made barrels also.
 
If the barrels were made in Belgium I'd think that they would have at least some Belgian proofs, but I'm not 100% sure about that.

Westley Richards made a full range of guns, from very cheap "trade market" guns to the high end guns that we associate with them today.
 
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