Holy breeches

[greyhunter]

A guy on FB posted a picture of a German sxs for sale, $300.00. In the pictures it shows what he thinks are clean out holes in the rounded area of the breech. He says the screws are missing. Maybe Feltwad or other of our sxs experts can enlighten us as to whether or not there are shotguns with purpose built threaded holes in the breeches, or is this shotgun now a wall hanger?

[Stormrider51]

Could the holes have been for percussion nipples?

[greyhunter]

Not unless they used two nipples per cylinder! The holes on each cylinder are forward of the hammer and to the side. Being a sxs it has round breech at back of barrel.

[greyhunter]

Just rechecked this sxs,it is a R W. & C  Co. Biddle, Philadelphia mfg., not German. I can't post a picture of it as it has privacy settings. And the nipples are there under the hammer, the hole is threaded and forward of the nipple.

[Stormrider51]

Clean out screws?  That's really the only thing I can think of.

[greggholmes]

where they here?



these are platinum blow out plugs.
They may have blown out and then threaded to replace them.
questionable to me.

[Loyalist Dave]

If it's in Germany the gun may have been "demilled" so the owner could keep it as a family heirloom while not running afoul of German gun laws, NOR having to pay registration fees.

LD

[greyhunter]

where they here?



these are platinum blow out plugs.
They may have blown out and then threaded to replace them.
questionable to me.

Yep, that looks to be area where hole is on each barrel.

[Captchee]

eather blow outs if  not sloted or clean out if sloted .
 Greener  if i recal showed a patent breech with threaded clean out .

[Feltwad]

These vents are for two main purposes,they are there for  safety in case of a obstuction in the barrel in which case the vents should but not always  be blown out .If you take a close look at these vents you will notice a small vent hole which is very small the main reason for this is that when the cap is fired  and ignites the main charge a small amount of air is drawn through the vent which increases the speed of ignition.One of the main faults is that this hole becomes enlarged which can give your arm a nasty burn from escaping gas ,when this accures you will find that these vents have been removed and a screw has been inserted and filed flush with the barrel .
Feltwad

[snake eyes]

Feltwad,
           Thanks, makes sense!
snake-eyes