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Very nice photo, Argo. Thanks for your service . . . in a war whose vets did not receive proper thanks for a very long time. And were often met with scorn when they came home. You're the guys who should have received handshakes, "thanks for your service", "let me buy you a beer or lunch", etc.

I went through Jungle Warfare School in Panama in 1969, courtesy of CIA paramilitary training. Loved those jungle fatigues! Interesting part was, we had jungle fatigues, jungle packs and hammocks etc . . . while an artillery battery on its way to Vietnam had none of those goodies. They wondered who we were, because our jungle fatigues were totally unmarked (not even US Army) and we wore a wide variety of headgear. As it turned out, the military was playing an increasingly large role in Vietnam back then, while earlier on it had been mostly a CIA/Special Operations war. I think only one of my classmates ended up in Vietnam.

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Originally Posted By: wingshooter16
Well, I'm sure presence of soil and new condition will raise the hackles and harumps of "well, of course it's French: never fired and only thrown down once."

We wait with bated breath for pics of the Lady.


Mike


Worked with French Foreign Legion in Afghanistan, good guys (they were Frenchmen mostly).

My Father was next to the French Bn in Korea (all French no foreigners allowed) they did good work.


Michael Dittamo
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The 732 is either the maker's serial number or a batch number to make sure the parts for each gun stayed together during manufacturing.
The French gunmakers marked the bore diameter in millimeters: roughly 18.1 through 18.3 for 12 ga, 16.9 through 17.1 for 16ga.
I have a similar gun in 16 ga, sans the carved breech balls, plus some remaining case color. It, too, was a war trophy - the seller's late GI father found it in a Norman barn in the summer of '44, liberated it and sent it home, where his dad used it for a few years and then it sat unused and in a place of honor in the vet's living room for over 50 years.
These are great guns, made more to carry a lot and shoot a little. If, as with yours (and mine) the barrels are solid, they're as good as anything out there.


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Originally Posted By: old colonel
Originally Posted By: wingshooter16
Well, I'm sure presence of soil and new condition will raise the hackles and harumps of "well, of course it's French: never fired and only thrown down once."

We wait with bated breath for pics of the Lady.


Mike


Worked with French Foreign Legion in Afghanistan, good guys (they were Frenchmen mostly).

The French haven't hesitated about intervening in their former colonies in Africa (and even some other places, like the former Belgian Congo) when necessary. Back in 1978, they dropped a Legion parachute regiment into Zaire to settle a little unpleasantness. Likewise provided support in Chad when Libya was trying to annex part of that country's north. My favorite story was about the Legion unit that was right next to a Chadian Army compound when Qadhafi launched an air raid. Legion guys went over the wall, "borrowed" the AA weapons from the Chadians, shot down a couple planes, back over the wall to their own compound. And more recently, they intervened in Mali when an Islamist terrorist group was causing problems.

My Father was next to the French Bn in Korea (all French no foreigners allowed) they did good work.

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Argo44 Offline OP
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I'm working on a translation of a brief article on the "Helice" locking system because I'm pretty sure that "Wonder" lock is a "Helice" copy. The Verney-Carron lock as Larry has said was created in 1896 as an improvement on the Lefaucheux system itself improved by Webley. But it apparently wasn't patented until 1918 by "Helice," a disciple/employee of Verney-Carron, and didn't expire till 1970. And up until 1918 it was shamelessly copied. If this is correct...then the plain Jane I bought has to be pre 1918 because that patent, once registered was pretty zealously enforced.

Model of the lock:



Verney-Carron with a version of the Helice lock engraved from the 1960 catalogue.



Other versions of the lock:





I'll be looking over the shoulder of my gunsmith to confirm my suspicions.



Last edited by Argo44; 06/27/16 11:58 PM.

Baluch are not Brahui, Brahui are Baluch
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Argo44 Offline OP
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Oh and by the way, my two sons are dual French/American citizens. They spent most of their years in school abroad. But in High School here they were sometimes harassed because of their French ancestry. (Ok, we know High Schools and you'll be picked on if you row for the crew team ..."row row row your boat"...etc.) Fortunately they knew how to take care of business and stop that stuff cold. But it wasn't pleasant.


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Lest there be any doubt, as I have been quoted twice, I was being sarcastic (thus the employment of quotation marks). I get more than my share of grief from friends and others about my love of many things French in general, and French guns in particular. I can't count the times I have endured the "unfired and only thrown down once" jibe.

Mike


Tolerance: the abolition of absolutes

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Argo44 Offline OP
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Mike, no problem and I knew your humanity and sympathies. I was just making a point for others. That's why I said "Austerlitz" and could go on to mention "Verdun" and "LaFayette."

Last edited by Argo44; 06/27/16 11:19 PM.

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USAF RET 1971-95 [Linked Image from jpgbox.com]
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Argo44 Offline OP
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"Worked with French Foreign Legion in Afghanistan, good guys (they were Frenchmen mostly)."

French worked in Kabul Province...E. of the city down to the dam and up into the Uzbin Valley. Not a good place. They lost 14 people in an ambush in 2011? They are all over the Sahel now fighting ISIS even if Francois Hollande is a nerd's nerd.

And I remember the Libyan claim of the Ouzo strip and their occupation of N. Chad. My wife and I landed in N'Djamena (Fort Lamy) in 1981 on an Air Afrique plane going to Brazzaville...it taxied to the dusty terminal. made a U-turn and ran for the runway. Libyan armored cars appeared on each side of the plane. It stopped. Someone in 1st class was taken off. Well...it was Africa...Angola going on..the Savimbi revolt against the MPLA...Soviet transports on the long haul...60,000 Cuban troops..South Africans. Somehow the world is less interesting since the Wall fell.

Last edited by Argo44; 06/27/16 11:49 PM.

Baluch are not Brahui, Brahui are Baluch
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