Please ID this barrel
 

Hi,

I post this pistol here, despite the fact that its an Algerian one.
The barrel has two stamps.
CAM 3150
J 6083
I believe that is a rifle barrel cut to fit a pistol.
It's a very long pistol 58cm. Due to the origin of the pistol I believe the barrel to be French or Spanish. I will be really grateful if you can help to trace the origin of this barrel...
Thanks

Kubur

Hi Kubur

That's an interesting pistol. Agree, definately Algerian. The style of open work on the lock, the barrel bands, and the grip area are all typical of Algerian pistols. The butt cap and grip of the stock styling were also popular with Italian pistols of the 18th Century. But, as we know, many of these early - even pre 1750 - styling techniques continued with Ottoman guns well into the 19th Century.
BARREL: Hmmmm. Hard to say. The raised, central rib with the two side ribs remind me more of French or Italian barrel styling. Does the central, raised rib (and maybe the other two) run the full length of the barrel ? another pic of the full length of the barrel - from the top - would be useful. Maybe without the barrel bands. The barrel does seem to have a nice, wide breech.
Whats curious is the two sets of letters/numbers on the barrel. Could be spurious marks. But simple letters/numbers would not make sense for that. Maybe they were added latter when the pistol was captured ?
The whole pistol would be worth further investigation also on the Ethno Forum.
Rick

Dear All,

After few investigations, it seems that the barrel could be a rifle barrel.
Most probably LEBEL or GRAS rifle form the French army sent to Belgium to be exported to Magreb / North Africa. Needs to be confirmed
It's sad that firearms don't attract people. May be next time i'll write sword in the title of my thread like on ebay, all adds start by shamshir...

Best,
Kubur :)

Don't worry firearms are attractive to us but the question is not one I can help with, in regard to the barrel. The numbers are industrial stamps, applied individually without the care a skilled gunsmith would usually use. Note the overturned W used as M, reduces the number of stamps needed in a set. The numeral style is at earliest 19th to early 20th century in my opinion, and the look of the superscript m to my mind is French.

This would be consistent with arms registration in the 20th century, when police or tradesmen not artisan gunsmiths apply the numbers. Perhaps Algerie Francaise registered all weapons.

Kubur: Do you have a pic of the muzzle of the barrel ? Is the barrel actually rifled ? Or smoothbore ? And approximate caliber ?

Rick

At the moment, the Post above by ChrisPer makes the most sense to me.

Rick

Thanks both for your notes.
It's a smoothbore, the caliber i don't know, it s a very very long pistol around 56cm...