doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Francotte damascus double

From the shape of the fences and the fit of the extractor, might it be a conversion from pinfire? A photo of the top of the fences might confirm it one way or the other.

I do have an unnamed single 10-bore pinfire fowling gun with a Francotte-marked 49.7� false-damascus barrel, and from the proof marks it dates somewhere between 1877 and1893.

(OK, after seeing a photo from a different angle, definitely not a pinfire conversion, but an original centre-fire)

The Banc D'Epreuves de Liege ELC in an oval was marked after 1818. The Provisional Proof mark after 1852.

Drew, your thought of export is interesting. I believe current law is that both the exporting and importing country require proofs, but I have no idea what the practice was back in the mid 19th century. Perhaps, as you suggest, it was manufactured by Francotte for export to a country not requiring proofed barrels. I did get a message from Mr. Nash of Ontario who also has an unnamed firearm with marked Francotte barrels from the 1870's. Thanks for the information. Tony

Francotte may have just supplied the tube or the gun could be one they made. Might even be a minor maker who made it, using Francotte name for export.

Any chance it's a converted percussion gun or bbls came off a Francotte percussion gun?

OWD

I sent Mr Nash a couple of photos of the fences and strikers to explore that possibility and he confirmed that the shotgun was designed as a centerfire. Thanks for the interest.

I believe Mr Nash wondered if it could have been a pinfire at one time.

That's different from what I'm wondering.

Judging by these three features, I doubt the gun started life as it is now:

1. There are no flats on the bbls

2. The crude way the slot for the extractor is cut into the tubes

3. The lack of a radius on the action

OWD

A bit fuzzy, but a lot of blind file strokes in the rotary well?


Cheers,

Raimey
rse

I'll do some research on percussion to centerfire conversions and see if there are other clues which might support your observations. Thank you.

Tony:

Can you send me a better in focus image of the water-table / action?


Cheers,

Raimey
rse