Buck, Ted is a world renowned expert on Darnes. He's dealt in French guns for 45 years. He can be pretty abrupt sometimes - a lot of us are - but one should not discount what he says. I just insert comment here and there because I speak the language, not as well as Wild Cattle but good enough. And I have in-laws in Saint Etienne/Saint Chamond area and am interested in the subject, seeing as how wife and kids are dual Franco-American citizens..
I'm not sure that the French "Raye" barrel guns should be considered "Cape Guns." The "Raye" barrel appears to me to be mostly a shotgun attachment not a pure rifle barrel. In any event Ted's observations are from experience. I happen to believe that this barrel was conceived in about 1928 as a way to fire ball out of a shotgun and still leave it a shotgun to shoot a spreader-round at Becasse. I think the advertisements and articles speak for themselves.
It looks like with your engineering background (I have two brothers and a step-father who were engineers) you also have the curiosity and wherewithal to educate us in the future much like the UK poster from 2006 experimenting with an identical gun. This will truly be interesting...as posted, the curiosity about these guns periodically spikes. They are not common.
Take care. Gene.
edit: and I agree on the assessment of the "raye" striated barrels - they are meant for both ball and shot.
Last edited by Argo44; 12/21/20 01:40 AM.
