doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Viva La France

I am actually pleasantly surprised by French guns. I recently picked one up, not really thinking much of it, maybe like a Savage 311 or an imported Spanish gun made to a price point, nope! I am actually really impressed. Here is a little bit about it. It was made by Societe Moderne De Fabrications Mecaniques. Whew what a mouthful, so SMFM it is!! I'm not really sure the year of manufacture, but the catalog I found was from 1959.

It's a 12 bore SOLYD model

Internals are basic, nicely finished

Top Lever

Set Screw to hold the top lever pin

Numbered pins ( I assume most parts were outsourced)




Receiver is case colored and offers a nice hidden cover and a removable/adjustable hinge pin





Another cool feature is the forend iron, has adjustments which I assume is to compensate for wear



Basic trigger set and safety
[img]https://i.ibb.co/0C5JTHd/SMFM-trigger.jpg[/img]

Catalog entry
[img]https://i.ibb.co/qkLYbk2/SMFM-catalog.jpg[/img]

SOLYD 101A
Fine rifle. Pyro Barrel guaranteed stainless. Advanced left choke and advanced half right choke.
70mm chambers. Ideal-Diamond steel. Interior rectified with stone and pyrochrome. Black bronze exterior.
Finely streaked receding band. (not sure what that is) Barrel subjected to double proof 1,150 kg per cm2.
Triple lock closure. Reinforced stainless steel receiver. Normal extractor, optional safety. Removable front with push button mechanism.
Very sober decoration of the receiver and fittings. Tempered marble (case hardened? ) parts. 1/2 pistol stock in beautiful walnut wood(French walnut I believe).
Shooting adjusted in height and direction, guaranteed range test of the finished rifle at T weight under pressure of 900kg per cm2.
Certificate of Proof House of Saint Etienne guaranteed 5 yrs.

Caliber 12
Average weight 2kg 720
Barrel Length 70cm




An explanation on what Pyrochrome is

[img]https://i.ibb.co/QNc7JLF/SMFM-chrome.jpg[/img]

Pyrochrome plating, of which we are dealers, is an electrolytic process which makes the inside of barrels very resistance to the corrosive action of hunting powders.

On several occasions, since the invention of the application of chrome, attempts have been made to chrome the inside of the barrels of hunting and war rifles.
All researchers have come up against the same difficulty: the homogeneity of chromium. By the very fact of treatment,
the chrome layer of chrome is impregnated with infinitely small air bubbles, which , when released over time .cause the chrome to flake off.
We tried to solve the problem by increasing the thickness of the layer. The results is convincing on ordinary pieces, but in a rifle barrel only a minimal thickness is possible so as not to harm the expansion of the barrel during the shot,
consequently the range and the grouping.

The invention of Pyro took 10 years of research. The special composition of our baths and certain chemical solution prevent the formation of air during work.
As a result, it is possible for us to deposit inside the barrel a layer of chromium of 2/100mm, absolutely homogeneous, that is to say forming a chromic cementation forming one body with steel of the barrel.
The low thickness deposited allows the normal expansion of the walls of the barrel, the firing of which is in no way disturbed, as evidenced by the test carried out at the proof house in Liege on September 10, 1936.


Some of it is mixed up due to translation of certain words. Still a really cool double which surprised me.

Can you give us a nice, clear shot of the proof marks, on the barrel flats? Lots of information, there. Post 1900, for sure.

When I was in St. Etienne in 1997, I looked around in the local shops for guns like those, thinking I could import them. But, basic, plain sliding breech and box lock guns were worth $3-4K to the French dealers, and I would have though myself lucky to get $5-600 for them, here. I was dumbfounded at the difference in value, but, my host set me straight. “In France, the rich hunt”. The prices realized for the guns built by the artisan makers that were left, made a lot more sense, in that light.

25 years later, those everyday using guns a worth little in France. Same in England. Same in Spain. It would appear there was a revolution, of sorts.

Best,
Ted

It’s a very lightweight lively gun, it’s very basic, but I really like it. Definitely an eye opener for French guns.

Your line from a month ago:

https://doublegunshop.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=626111&page=1

Yep! And this is the double posted above. Some really cool features and added info!

Ted--I was last in France a year before you were. My wife and I spent about 10 days in England, where I purchased an Army & Navy sidelock non ejector 12 boreat a good price. We then took the train through the Chunnel and spent about the same amount of time in France. I probably spent a good hour chatting with the owner of a gun shop in Dijon. He had a plain but nice little Charlin 16 in good shape that I came close to buying. (Hadn't burned through my gun budget in the UK.) I now wish I had. I could have had it for about $8-900, which I thought was a pretty good buy. Called the shop from the States when I got home. The owner was surprised to hear my voice . . . and we were both disappointed that he'd sold the gun before I got in touch with him.

I don't know why the difference in price from St. Etienne to Dijon at about the same time. Maybe because St. Etienne is where most French guns are made. But that almost seems backwards.

Larry,
If you bought an English side lock non ejector, I hope you got a hell of a buy on it.

I bought a Charlin LC-1, in very good shape, for $400, from Denny Dennis hardware, in 1993. I passed on an R10, from Kittery Point, just prior, for $600. In spite of having 29” tubes, I felt it was priced too high.

Both guns were 90%. The Charlin was a 16, Bill still owns it. The R10 was a 12.

There weren’t any good buys in France, when I was there. I seem to remember looking at a new Remington 870, for about double what they cost, here. There were guys in France who thought an 870 was the cats meow. A lot of those guys hunted pigs, exclusively, because they were pests, and they could get land owner permission to do so, easily.

There are a lot of good buys, all over Europe, today. If I had to guess, I’d say 10-15 years from now, there will be lots of really good buys, right here.

Best,
Ted

Ted, that's why I bought that nonejector sidelock. The Brits are convinced that there's something very odd about a sidelock that doesn't have ejectors.

I had a shop owner in Paris proudly show me his Model 21. Almost like he thought it was a Purdey.