doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com A few Questions about my Francotte

Bob is an invaluable, and much appreciated resource, and his record for SN 28032 is no doubt correct.
Your SN 28032 however clearly carries a 1926 lettre annale, the date code placed by the Liege Proof House at the time of proof, and lettre annale are correct.
Belgian guns can not be dated based on the controller's marks - some were repeated and the significance of some were lost to a fire.
In addition, the 12-70 in the Omega was only used after 1924

Drew,

I believe that you are correct in identifying the Lettre Annale as indicating 1926. But I just realized that the owner says that the barrels are 26 inches in length. Since the VL&D record book shows clearly that the gun arrived with 30 inch barrels and the catalogs indicate that the Model No. 2 was made with only 28 or 30 inch barrels, I wonder if it is possible that the owner returned the gun to Francotte in the mid-1920's to be re-barreled with shorter barrels? I believe that the mark of the rampant lion over PV as a nitro proof mark began to be used on civilian arms in 1903 and the fraction of a gram in barrel weight was discontinued in 1924. Both would support the mid-1920's manufacture of the barrels. Whichever, it is a nice looking Francotte.

Bob Beach