Thread: Gun ID - From Brazil

Gents - My neighbor and I were talking today and he showed me an old pistol that he got from his grandfather many years ago. His grandfather lived and died in southern Brazil and acquired the gun there at some point long ago. We did a little searching and came up empty as to the ID of it, the age/year it was made, and most importantly, what it looked like when it was in use.

I've offered to restore it in as far as removing the rust while maintaing the "old" look as well as making and installing new scales (my neighbor remembers it having a white and a dark material for scales when he was a kid). We both think it should be restored to as close as possible to its original look but can't seem to find what that original look was. The only marking we could find were on the left side and in from of the trigger area (got a closeup shot of it).

Can't see it in the photo but its got 2 barrels and seems to have a firing mechanism that appears to fire shells like a shotgun (but much smaller). There is a front sight (not much more than a lump of metal between the barrels) and the firing action still works.

Any ideas?

Are the barrels rifled ???? or smooth bore..

What type of Firing system is it ??? Rim, Center, Cap ????

Good questions Glen! I'm not much familiar with guns made prior to about 1945 but I'll get some more pics up in an hour or two.

UPDATE - Looks like his kids are probably going nuts (ages 1 and 3) so it'll have to be tomorrow for more pix.

Yeah hurry and post something Mike you want to change that post count number from "666" LOL

Yeah its trash. I guess I could do your neighbor a favor and take it off his hands for him. No but seriously I dont have any info. It looks like a cap firing systems because it looks like it has nipples for the caps to go where the hammer strikes. I would also guess it is smooth bore but who knows im just guessing at the because its two barrels and their short so acurracy wasnt probably the biggest concern to the maker. Definitely a cool gun and some ebony wood and ivory or MOP grips would be pretty nice.

it would be nice to see the muzzles. you say smaller than a shotgun could it be like a .410? I have had a few derringer type pistols chambered for the .410 but they had much shorter barrels and were OU not side by side.

or perhaps something similar to a howda pistol but most of them were percussion cap muzzleloaders

enjoy,
jim

Is a navel Boarding pistol,would bet smoothbore, meant to be crammed with shot, nails, whatever,the grips were one pce.

Originally Posted by pixelfixed

Is a navel Boarding pistol,would bet smoothbore, meant to be crammed with shot, nails, whatever,the grips were one pce.

That's pretty cool! I'll have to upload some more pictures tomorrow when he's free to come out and play again.

Interesting piece!
It seems to be a center fire piece so cartridges were probably available for it at one time. The trigger arrangement is similar to "set triggers" that being the rear trigger sets the lock and the little one forward "sets" off the shot with a very light pressure. My only thought is that the Europeans did a lot of "Drillings" Those were for shot shells of 8 to 15mm that were often alongside rifled barrels.
Good thread!
~Richard

Here's some more pix...

The barrels are smooth bore as far as I can tell (rust doesn't allow clear view of the metal) and I tried to get good pix of the firing mechanism. My neighbor's 3 yr old is bouncing off the walls at the prospect of this being a "pirate" gun!