doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Information on Gunmaker Rivolier Pere et Fils

Neltir is a retired Saint-Etienne gunsmith who is incredibly knowledgeable of French guns. He posts on this site: http://www.passionlachasse.com. I'd be willing to post a question on the site and see what comes back.

As pointed out in another line, Revolier like other European gun-makers sometimes used Belgian barrels. Here's the post.

That's a great source.

Several U.S. gun manufacturers including Hunter Arms, Remington, and Iver-Johnson also built bicycles. Lefever Arms Co. made bicycle chain.

In the case of this gun . . . maybe I'm missing something, but the proofmarks on the barrel are pure St. Etienne. I don't see anything to indicate Belgian origin. Some French makers did use Belgian barrels. For that matter, some French "makers" put their names on guns made in Belgium. But I don't see that applying to the gun in question in this thread. French barrels, proofed no earlier than 1900.

As for Rivolier, if you look at the information posted by Argo, you'll see that they also made sewing machines, safes, cutlery, and ammunition. That's fairly significant diversity. Hard to tell how much of their operation went in which direction.

If having a diverse product line was any indication that a given manufacturer didn't put much effort into gun making, then one might conclude that Parker was a minor player that probably outsourced much of their gun parts and production.

After WWI, Winchester's product line expanded to include pocket knives, kitchen cutlery, scissors, ice skates, roller skates, fishing tackle, flashlights, batteries, sporting goods and tools such as axes, hatchets, pipe wrenches, planes, auger bits, screwdrivers, chisels, punches, hammers, and pliers.

It is rumored that Winchester may have even made some guns and ammunition.

Well Keith (having read your post above) . . . are you suggesting that the stock and forend are original and made by Rivolier? I'd put significant money on the wood being a custom job. As I noted earlier, it simply does not match the rest of the gun--which is a relatively plain boxlock nonejector with minimal engraving. Not that it's not a good gun (most French guns being well-made), but just not an expensive one, to match that wood.

Well Larry, I thought you were ignoring my posts. Actually, I knew that you read them regularly, but pretended to ignore them.

I see your reading comprehension hasn't improved a bit over the last year or so. Nowhere in my last post did I suggest that the stock and forearm were original and made by Rivolier. But I'd bet that when this gun left their factory, it had a stock and forearm. Very early in this thread, I said this gun was either a lightly used closet queen or had been refinished. A couple posts later, I agreed it had likely been restocked. In the past, (not in this particular thread)I have noted several times that old wood finish typically shrinks into the pores, and lack of that is a strong indicator that a gun has been refinished. Most wood finishes tend to oxidize and become darker with time too. Before I found any images of original RPF guns, I did not know how their stocks were shaped and checkered, so I admit that I thought it was possible this one had been stripped and refinished, and that the original wood may have been re-profiled.

The very light coloration of the wood on this gun still suggests to me that it is very possibly French Walnut, even if it has been replaced. I'd still like to know who did the wood work as they did a beautiful job. But I don't think it looks terribly out of place on this relatively unadorned gun. I know of some high grade Syracuse Lefevers that were ordered with their normal fancy wood and checkering, but intentionally made with very sparse engraving and no gold inlays.

That gun has been professionally refinished and re-stocked after it left place of original manufacture. The fit and finish is superior to original one.

Are you going to tell us that you did the re-stocking of this gun Jagermeister? That would be a believable as much of the other bullshit you've been posting here. Why won't you explain why you can't keep your stories or lies straight about the guns you claim to own? And why does a guy who does not even own any doubles spend so much time on a double gun forum regurgitating crap he read elsewhere?

I noticed that in the 16 gauge RST thread, you now claim that you bought a short barreled 16 gauge Remington semi-auto instead of some clunker double with an electro-optical sight. This new bullshit comes AFTER you told us that you had bought some ugly double with an electro-optical sight. You even said a couple times, that you were going to post pictures of this ugly gun you had bought.

When you tell lies all the time, it does get hard to keep those stories straight, doesn't it?

After feedback from lowiecki.pl I had serious reservations about double I had put 20% down on. When I went in to evaluate it again I found 16ga Remington with I.C. choked 26" barrel. Needless to say I jumped at opportunity to own very desirable gun at very reasonable price.