Larry and Bob, Francotte made Knockabouts were still in the racks at Abercrombie and Fitch when I was prowling the streets of Manhattan in 1961. All gauges were displayed and many, especially smallbores, were equipped with beavertail forends with a cut in the wood to allow access to the Anson forend release. We don't see many of these today because the prices were off the scale. $425 for the big guns and $485 for the 28 and .410. I'll let Bob tell us when the Rizzinis came on the market. Thanks, Bob, for letting me know that my 32" Knockabout serial number 82,517 is a bit scarce. Mine is the only one I've seen. One of these days, I'll get you to look it up for me and see whose gun it was. Bill Murphy
Bill, you're right about the Francottes getting pretty expensive . . . although my 1936 A&F catalog (Knockabout Ejector priced at $175) would indicate they were never all that cheap. But I think A&F went to the Zoli-Rizzini guns for the same reason Browning went to Miroku: guns from Belgium had become too expensive for a certain segment of their clientele.
