Buckstix; Why not try fabricating a couple of those slugs as illustrated on the English site above and comparing them with a similar charge with ball - shot from your right barrel. I understand rifled slugs on standard modern shot gun smooth bore slug barrels don't really rotate yet can put in a 4" group at 100 yards.. Still it would be interesting to look at ball and slug groups from your "raye" barrel per the English post above.
Also for history, I'd love to see patterns from that same barrel in say #6 shot. and compare them to your left barrel. Sounds like the research proposed by Ted would be interesting to all. Gene
Hello Argo44
Thanks for the reply.
Unfortunately I'm very reluctant to put much credence in what Ted Schefelbein had to say, based on his earlier post where he stated very matter-of-factly;
" .... Raye barrels are NOT intended for slugs. ... " The last paragraph in your translation of the French publication clearly stated; " ... The (shallow) rifling. For the dispersion of shot when firing at a short distance and for the shooting of ball, ..."
I especially like the line that reads; "... it’s worth noting that certain barrels, meant for firing ball, were rifled from the exit of the chamber, along the entire length of the barrel. What happiness for a collecter to come upon such a rarity. ..."
This leaves no doubt that rifling the full length of a bore was meant for shooting ball. I really appreciate that info.
I've found on many occasions that information on various forums is solely based on opinion, rather than actual fact from field testing. Coming from an R&D Research background, I always try to stick to tested facts, rather than conjecture and opinion.
Interestingly, my Thomas Bland Paradox 12 bore also has shallow (invisible) rifling, and my tests have shown that it performs equally well with both shot and ball. "Ball" meaning the 790g bullet that I cast from the mold that is numbered to / and came with the gun. Thomas Bland advertisements from the period did not refer to this as a Paradox Gun, they called it a "Rifled Ball & Shot Gun". The terminology "Ball & Shot Gun" is also used on the rib between the barrels.
https://www.doublegunshop.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=559513&page=allI questioned here on this Forum about the proof marks on this double, but discussion about it being called a Cape Gun have come up. The other Cape Guns in my collection have Rifle / Shotgun barrels, rather than Shotgun / Shotgun barrels, with one barrel being rifled. Although this was advertised as a Cape Gun, and it is by definition, perhaps an appropriate description - "Ball & Shot Gun" would have been better. Hence all the discussion. I primarily wanted to know the meaning of the numerous proof and other marking on the gun.
As for testing, I've got a lot of experiments to conduct in the next few months on projects that were underway before I acquired this Manufrance gun. But I intend to thoroughly test it with both shot and ball (slug) and will publish the results. Number 6 shot from both barrels at 25 yards, and slugs & round balls from both barrels at 50 yards.
The small bead front sight with no rear sight would be difficult to use beyond 50 yards. Here in Wisconsin most whitetail deer are taken at 50 yards or under, so this distance should be an adequate test of the gun. Although the gun is fairly light weight, recoil shouldn't be a problem for me. I'm used to heavy recoil since I shoot my 600NE and 700NE regularly.
