Rob, thank you very much for posting your nice gun as a reference. I think it's quite interesting to compare #85859, #86195 and #86423. They were probably made within the same year.

#85859 and #86423 look more similar in terms of quality (drop on the stock, wings on the breech face) and configuration (Greener crossbolt).
However it seems that Francotte also used different lock plates: The positions of the pins look equal, but the screws are different, maybe because #86195 does not have cocking indicators? (edit: I realized that it has indeed cocking indicators. It looks like someone messed with them using a screw driver. So what are the two extra screws good for on the higher grade guns?)
Also the Francotte logos on the Barrels look different: #86195 has a large crown over AF, while the other two have a small crown over AF with some leaves in between. Does this mean anything?

#85859 is not a self opening action, right? I suspeect that the patent has to do something with that. On the other hand, on #86423 it looks like the standard H&H System, no? On #86195 I can hardly make it out because of the deactivation, I just see that there is something which could be similar.

Last edited by joda; 05/10/20 06:26 AM. Reason: see text