The problem with references on French shotguns, such as those mentioned above by Robert, is that they're written in French. Most people in this country neither read nor speak French. Not only are those references in French, but they are full of gun terminology, which is not the kind of French you learn in school--as I can verify, since I have both a BA and an MA in the language, and have taught it myself at a couple universities. I've learned a decent amount of "gun French" simply because I'm interested in guns and already knew French to start with. But generally speaking, for the reasons cited above, good references on French shotguns are not readily available to your average American with an interest in shotguns in general, nor French shotguns in particular. Example: When I first saw the term "les ailes" in reference to a side by side, I thought to myself, "What in the hell does that mean--a shotgun with wings?" Finally figured out, on my own--because it sure as hell ain't in any French dictionary I have--that the term referred to sideclips. And I have seen (I'm sorry to say) translations directly from the French, literally, that simply don't make sense to native speakers of English who know guns but don't know French.
I even have a copy of a great French reference on shotguns and ballistics: "Tir des Fusils de Chasse" by General Journee. Problem is, it's full of a lot of technical engineering and mathematical terminology, and my background is literature--so even for me, it's very tough sledding. Now if I had degrees in both French and engineering, I might be able to render some of that text into decent English.
But to get back to Beagle's situation, Ted's points are very well-taken--even if he did transpose the i and the e in "Abeille".
Is this really a gun in which Beagle wishes to invest in order to end up with a "shooter"? If it has some sort of sentimental value, perhaps so. Otherwise . . . well, back in my early days playing with doubleguns, I forked over the cash for some very nice Bishop wood and had it put on a Stevens 20. Gun looked great afterwards, much better than a Sterlingworth or a Trojan, but it was still a Stevens--and God knows it didn't handle like a Sterlingworth. So regardless of who made it and when, the issues are: 1. What's a decent restocking job going to cost? 2. What will the gun be worth with a new stock? And finally: 3. Will it handle like a Darne (or clone) did as originally stocked, or will it handle like a Stevens with a sliding breech?
