I have never owned a Belgian percussion dbl, but Vernon Starr in his little book on ML shotguns stated that Belgian ones were normally brazed & English ones soft soldered. My I Hollis has held up quite well over the years. It does bear proper Birmingham Proofs. It does seem to be a rather late gun for percussion as it has the proof mark for combined provisional & definitive proof, which wasn't introduced until near the end of the percussion era.
Most of the guns that are to be had in this country today were imported from England with Belgium running a close second. Most of the English guns were of good quality but some of the Belgian were pretty poor, but one good point with the Belgians, no one ever saw a pair of Belgian barrels come apart no matter how cheap the gun or how poorly made. I have never seen a pair of barrels bearing the Belgian proof mark that was not brazed together and the devil himself can't get them apart without heating them red hot.
Miller,
I would never argue with some one's observations. I would point out what many do not know. The Belgians continued to produce muzzle loaders well into the 1930's. These were meant for "the African trade". It seems they pushed out a lot of junk during this period. Now the African trade is confusing terminology. Certainly they were selling guns in the Belgian Congo and indeed through out Africa. They also had a very strong market in South America for decades by this time. Indeed, while discussions seem to focus on how many Belgian guns were sold here, South America was actually the major recipient.
Most of the Belgian muzzle loaders in the market, that I have seen are post 1890's. So I would not be surprised that the barrels were brazed.
Pete
