I ran across this passage in TR's autobiography:
"My gun was a breech-loading, pin-fire double barrel, of French manufacture. It was an excellent gun for a clumsy and often absent-minded boy. There was no spring to open it, and if the mechanism became rusty it could be opened with a brick without serious damage. When the cartridges stuck they could be removed in the same fashion."
TR was born in 1858. Around the time this gun is mentioned, he got his first spectacles which allowed him to feel normal. So assume he was about 12-14 years old (he talks about the winter of 1872 after the statement on the shotgun) probably around 1870-72? Pin-fires still predominated then. I'm going to assume thus was a classic Lefaucheaux under-lever pin-fire. Interesting.
Last edited by Argo44; 07/05/22 08:01 PM.