What is this? Help needed!!

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Those are the ugliest handguns I have ever seen! I thought the revolver was a Smith & Wesson until I saw it cleaned up. Now I don't even know. Most of them are simple single shot, break action pieces. Not too hard to make in a shop. The odd shapes do speak of being home made to me. Are you sure they're actual shooters and not turn-of-the-century toy guns? I think you stumbled on someones forgotten collection of zip guns!
lol, I don’t know
 
I'm assuming you found them all in basically the same place. Could you expound on that?
As a retired law enforcement officer, my mind immediately goes to the question: Why were eleven pistols dumped in a river in the 1800's?
What else is down there?
Criminal gang? KKK? (What's the difference, right?) Seized by the sheriff and disposed of? (not likely)
There is obviously a very interesting story behind them.

Suspicious looking. :smile: Former LEO. :smile:
 
Do I see some kind of marking on one in the bottom photo on page 1? Something "&D"? That mark is not on the pistol below it.
Are there any markings at all that you can make out?

They don't look like high-quality pistols, maybe local manufacture?

By the way, you're doing a great job cleaning them up.
Do I see some kind of marking on one in the bottom photo on page 1? Something "&D"? That mark is not on the pistol below it.
Are there any markings at all that you can make out?

They don't look like high-quality pistols, maybe local manufacture?

By the way, you're doing a great job cleaning them up.
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thanks oldsarge, they are a booger to clean
 
Out of all of the guns he found, not one is recognized by anyone on our site, so this leaves me to believe they are locally or home-made guns. A couple of them looks like there are target pistols. Pretty interesting though. Whoever made them had some skill.

I think what happened is the the wife of the gunmaker threw them in the river; "He love's those **** guns more than he loves me!" Thus ended the budding gunmaking career of John Mosses Greening.
 
Could this be a classic Stevens? Only gun that I could find a close resemblance too.

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Here are some more picks. I am cleaning with ultrasonic

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Fascinating find! I love the snake. It appears to be made of silver. I also noticed that the snake has red eyes...very thoughtful detail by the gunsmith. Can you tell if the red eyes are gemstone inlays? Thanks for your restoration work on an amazing find. I hope some markings can be found that will give us more clues as to their manufacturer or date of origin. Quite a mystery.
 
@Booner, I'm glad I swallowed my coffee before I read that.

The more these get cleaned up, the more crude they look. I am leaning toward the "hardware store inventor" theory now. We might be looking at an evolutionary series of prototypes.
 
I do see a stamp-like marking on the side of the upper gun(of the two) in the photo at the bottom of page one. I tried enlarging it to 400%, then 200%. There is definite symmetry noted in the border of the stamp, although the letters or marks are not easily identifiable to me, based upon the available resolution of this photo. It is a solid clue, nevertheless...hopefully it will add a piece to the puzzle.
 
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Could this be a classic Stevens? Only gun that I could find a close resemblance too.

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I don't believe it's what they are, but my late collecting mentor Robert Justice was a genius at cobbling junk like this together, often for theatrical purposes. For a production of a popular play, the title of which now escapes me, he built a wonderful "flintlock pistol" from a Stevens shotgun! The plot concerned two actors who are trying to kill each other, and the prop gun was SUPPOSED to be a stage prop; however, it had to work and work reliably, leaving an actual flintlock out of the question. It too was a break-open, firing a shotgun blank, but also had a working flint hammer.
 
@jhobbs2020 :

I have a question, maybe off-the-wall. I assume you found them in they same small proximity in the creek (which I am going to call a "hole"), and I am thinking that was not long ago. Were the guns deposited in the "hole" as if they were just hurriedly dumped there, or were they found in some orientation/position as if they were deliberately placed there by someone not in a hurry?

As far as the theory that they were put in the creek by a widow, I find that not far from the possible/probable.

My Grandfather in Detroit died in 1965. He collected many guns, and was a friend of a Detroit police Sergeant across the street, who used to give him guns (and brass knuckles) they had confiscated from various perps rather than do the paperwork on them at the station. Most were borderline junk but he hung them on the wall in his downstairs wet bar. He also had a Trapdoor Springfield rifle, an 1894 Winchester in .25-35, a Smith .357, and two Fox Sterlingworth SXS shotguns. My Grandmother hated guns. A few days after the funeral, my Dad went over to help her and saw all of the guns were gone. Grandma told him that she put them in the trash that morning, he found them all in a trash can sitting out in the alley behind the house, and grabbed them.

I hope you don't mind, but I downloaded all of your photos into a folder for my study. I am very intrigued with them. The one with the cylinder has a ring trigger, which seems very odd to me. The cylinder almost resembles a modern cartridge conversion cylinder with the backing plate, but I don't see any bolt stop slots to time the cylinder with the barrel.

Thank you for your thread!

Regards,

Jim
 
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