Absolutely awesome: A super rare 3-barrel shotgun …

What’s better than a double-barrel shotgun? How about a triple-barreled one.

While long guns with 3 barrels aren’t hard to find, top-quality 3-barrel shotguns are extremely scarce. John Dickson & Son made a few 3-barrel SxSs, and so did Westley Richards and  Boss & Co. Today, Johann Fanzoj builds high quality triple-barreled shotguns. These are best-quality guns, and they sell for €100,000+. (BTW: At the other end of the market, an outfit called Chiappa Firearms sell a Turkish-made 3-barrel shotgun call the Triple Threat. But from what I’ve seen, it’s junk.)

The Frederick Surkamer 3-bbl shotgun you see here was built on design patented by a R.M Jenkins in the 1930s.  The front trigger serves as a double single trigger firing the 9 o’clock and 12 o’clock barrels.  The firing sequence is 9 o’clock barrel, 12 o’clock barrel, and then 3 o’clock barrel — if done in order. But if you want, you can also fire the 9 and 3 and then pull the front again for the 12.  You can also fire the 3 first space and then the 9 and 12.

What makes this design unique is that the ejectors track whichever barrels have been fired — making it the only true three-barrel, selective ejection firing system in existence. No matter which barrel you fire, the correct  ejector will trip a kick the hull clear of the chamber.

Frederick Surkamer was  Chicago-area gunsmith who built custom rifles, worked for Von Lengerke & Antoine and Marshall Fields, and imported & finished drillings and shotguns from Europe.  I’ve been told that this 3-bbl gun was manufactured by him here in the United States. There are absolutely no proof marks on the gun anywhere, which helps supports this claim.