gun room | october 2019 g&A 191770-1830.” on page 18,
Dill writes about the saw
handle fad and says, “Sur-
prisingly, Durs Egg chose
to ignore it.” oK then, any
guesses at what I have?
W.R. McC.
Email
A: From what I can see I
would say you most likely
have a circa 1825 to ‘30
Durs Egg percussion pistol.
Quality is excellent and
there appears to be no
fakery or alteration other
than the replaced ramrod,
which is quite obvious. It
could be spurious, of course,
and the only way I could
tell positively would be to
examine the piece person-
ally — these things can be
quite nuanced. Egg, as you
know, was one of the preem-
inent gunmakers of his time
and his firearms are highly
regarded. However, his shop
not only sold its own prod-
ucts, but those of others
who were also marked with
the Egg address. There are
some interesting features
that might mitigate against
it being a dueler, but not
necessarily. According to
some published dueling
codes, proper dueling
pistols should not have
hair triggers nor sights,
both of which your piece
apparently possesses. On
the other hand, duels were
often fought with arms not
necessarily to code, but with
types which were mutu-
ally agreed upon by the
principals and their seconds.
Normally, the guns were
made in pairs so the shooter
would have a second shot
available, should it havebeen necessary. Combatants
generally did not pick one
gun each from the same
case, but used personal pis-
tols they were familiar with.
Though condition of your
piece could be a bit better,
it certainly appears to be of
the high quality associated
with Egg.VIETNAM BRING-
BACK 1944 MOSIN-
NAGANT
Q: I’m wondering about
the value of my russian
K44 rifle. I was a tunnel rat
for our company and given
my choice of the russian
arms in the tunnel complex.
I got the war trophy papers
while I was a member of
our battalion long-range
reconnaissance patrol
team (11th Light Infantry
Brigade (LIB), 4th battalion,3rd infantry), and was at
brigade headquarters after
losing my weapon during
a nighttime river crossing
while getting a new one.
R.B.
EmailA: Large numbers of Model
1944 Carbine variants of
the Model 1891/30 Mosin-
Nagant found their way to
Vietnam, and others have
been imported into the U.S.
in significant quantities,
so values normally are not
particularly high. Still, the
fact you retrieved the piece
in Vietnam and have the
paperwork along with it adds
cachet and value. Soviet-
made M44s normally run in
the $300 to $400 range, but
because of the backstory
connected with yours I’d add
another $200 or $300.