Actually Raimey, according to the information I found on Holtzer, they made "canons". Once more, whether that's barrels or artillery pieces is unclear because "canons" had both meanings, but I don't believe we can eliminate the possibility that they made barrels.

Nor can we eliminate the possibility that V-C made their own. The sentence "He decided to abandon earlier techniques, putting in place modern processes and installing efficient new equipment, THUS PRODUCING BARRELS RANKING AMONG THE BEST IN THE WORLD" sounds to me like V-C modernized their BARREL-MAKING techniques, since that is the specific reference. However, once again, it's not entirely clear.

Why incorporate a barrel-maker into their operation? Well . . . why incorporate Francisque Darne, who made guns based on an entirely different action? In England, why did Atkin and Lang merge, later incorporating both Grant and Lancaster? I recall touring the Federal Cartridge operation some years ago, after they acquired Estate. But rather than continue Estate's former (rather unique) shotshell operation, what they did was use the name on a cheaper line of shells--and put to good use some modern machinery that belonged to Estate.

Much more recently, V-C acquired the former Demas operation. Prior to that, as recently as the late 90's, V-C was having its two lines of side by sides manufactured for them elsewhere in the European Union, while they concentrated on OU's. Demas became "L'Atelier Verney-Carron" which handles both sxs and higher grade OU production for the company.

Guessing at why a company incorporates another is pretty much . . . guessing. That is, without supporting documentation.

Last edited by L. Brown; 05/21/13 11:07 AM.