On V-C making tubes, I find that very difficult to believe pre-WWII. But post WWII, the probability is quite high. When a makers touts steel types, it is more than likely propaganda as a advertising campaign for some steel concern's wares. I'm not sure regarding the French steel concerns, but the most of the German makers, less Krupp I think, paid a royalty to Heinrich Ehrhardt for his 1891 Ehrhardt'schen Pre- und Ziehverfahren, where he patented a process to form and stretch cavities/tubes under compression, for the right to use his technology. Erhardt, Witten and others utilized this technology early on for their tubes. I'm sure a rough tube would me much easier to convert for a sporting weapon, but info strongly suggests that in fact they did make tubes, my next question would be in what form did they acquire the raw materials, bar stock or tube cavity/rough tube?

Kind Regards,

Raimey
rse