I have recently acquired a single shot shotgun bearing the name "Long Tom" on the receiver. On the top of the barrel is etched (or as much as I can make out) "G?N?IN? ARMORY BERLIN". If anyone knows any history about this firearm I would greatly appreciate it if you could share it. It was found in the woods by my grandfather and all wooden components had rotted with age. New components were carved by a local man, but I would love to have them possibly replaced with actual or replica parts. As stated earlier, any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

What is the barrel length? Where i live here in the south any single shot (especially 12g ) with a 32 in or longer barrel is considered a "long tom". I have 2 such shotguns but neither is german. Long Tom refers to length (long) of the barrel and what choke it has (full) for it's intended game (turkey=tom). Hope this at least helped some.

Back in the early 1900's there were a lot of single and double shotguns imported for the hardware store trade, most of which were only fair in quality. Many of them also had short chambers because of lack of standards. Considering the age and known history of the gun I would suggest cleaning it up and hanging it on the wall for sentimental value. I wouldn't spend any money on it due lack of any real intrinsic value, plus any repairs would be more or less custom because factory parts would be more or less non existent. Here endeth the lesson.

Can wander though these posts:

http://vintagers.org/board/?topic=topic1&msg=533

Been a few guns stamped "long tom" in the past...and some long barrels hung on surplus M98 actions in 12ga as well (wich used the bolt handle as the only locking lug) that were stamped "Long Tom".

I haven't been here in a while so I'd like to thank you all for the replies. They were most helpful.