WC, I'm not quite understanding a couple of points in the post (And I'm pretty much a novice so pls have patience).

-- Saint-Etienne barrel makers made and assembled both barrels with lumps and ribs then sold them to the gun makers. So all the lumps were the same for all the manufactures? Darne, VC, ZF...all what..95 of them?

-- And there are two 7cm chambered DD barrels dated 1906 above. We've documented in another line how many different shells were being marketed in America by 1900. This line can only document two different French chambers for shells at the time - 6.5 and 7.0. Is there anyway to find out what shells were being made and sold in France at the time and what guns were chambered for them? It looks like universally 6.5 with the occasional 7. and that's it. Yet British gunmakers like Americans were ramping up the length and power of their double riflesand shotgun cartridges/shells at the time.

Finally, Passionlachasse.com and other sites have questioned the date of the change over from cm to mm in Saint-Etienne guns. 1912 seems to be the most accepted possible date. All agree that if this can be nailed down, it will be an important marker for French guns. There has to be some directive/documentation on this. It's worth the effort historically to track it down. But no one seems to want to take the bull by the horns and actually write to the proof house or do the research. There just has to have been a directive.

Last edited by Argo44; 07/02/17 12:34 AM.
Baluch are not Brahui, Brahui are Baluch