You are not comparing apples to apples. True, Breuil and Bernard were tube makers. But V-C was closer to a retailer of weapons and related haberdashery. Firearms merhants/retailers, for the most part, lie, lie & lie of theirs wares just like a used car salesman or GPS salesman. They cannot tell the truth and their catalogues are for entertainment or self lauding. Again, I would say show me the ledgers noting in-house tube sourcing; indicate how they received tubes or bar stock or show the inventory of equipment & I'd like to see a Pratt & Whitney machine or Ludwig Loewe. In fact, I'd entertain the idea if V-C had a barrel machine by the French concern Barriquand & Marre. An answer to just one would point toward tube production. But if they did not have the machinery they could not make the tubes. It is as simple as that. It is easy to say they did not as the burden of proof lies with stating that they did make tubes. I only have a cursory review of the Jacob Holtzer concern, but being one of the few that I do not know like back of hand, I will rectify that. Sporting arms steel was such a small percentage of the overall production that it is difficult to find much info. But when a steel maker speaks of steel barrels, almost always it refers to cannon or big guns.

Kind Regards,

Raimey
rse