doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com manufrance sxs with canon raye rifled barrel ?

These barrels were rifled supposedly to create a spreader effect?
Are they functional with todays shotshells?

How is the quality on these french Robust models? recommended?

Manufrance Robusts are very well made guns, and under appreciated in the US.

If they have straight rifling then, they are meant to spread the load. Manufrance made quality guns.

There have been some discussions here:
http://www.gournetusa.com/forum/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=8

Pete

Pete thanks for the info, the link is most helpful.
Interesting guns, first one I have seen.

Though I cannot currently give a source for either I have seen references of straight grooves being applied to a shotgun bbl for the purpose of "Eliminating Spin" & thus to improve the pattern (read that a closer one) & also rifling (spiral) for the purpose of increasing spin to scatter the pattern. The later I seem to recall being mentioned by Roger Barlow in reference to French guns.

Some of the older Manufrance catalogs are on line:
http://www.bm-st-etienne.fr/simclient/in...EVUE_FOREZIENNE

Scroll down to the bottom and you will see the links. They are of course in French. Reproduction catalogs can also be found on EBay. If you ever come across a Manufrance robust with damascus barrels, give me a shout. They were definitely producing their own damascus with some unique patterns.

Pete

The rifling was designed to spread the pellets. MF called it the "Supra" rifling. This is effective for woodcock shooting, but the most important application was cotton tail shooting.
Before the 50s, Europe was infested with cotton tails rabbits that could clean up an entire wheat field in no time. These creatures live in burroughs and are ferreted out with (you guessed it) a ferret. I have done it myself, and it's a lot of fun. However, the shooting distance is typically very short. If you use a full choke, you have rabbit marmalade.
Often, only one barrel was rifled.
In the 50s a doctor imported Myxomatosis to kill the rabbits in his park and managed to kill all the rabbits all the way to Russia. He was found guilty and sentenced to 1 FF of damage.
This is a shame as the rabbits are very tasty.
As for gun quality, the Robust is the poor man monoblocked gun, while the Ideal is the high end one.
Price wise, in 1930 the Robust ranges from 675 to 1800 FF, while the Ideal goes from 1200 to 15,000FF.
The Robust is very , you got it again, robust. Only the high end models have ejectors, and the retractable sling. They do last a long time and are capable of shooting 1000s of rabbits, partridges, hares, pigeons and even wild boar using slugs (for which the rifling was also useful)...
I do not know how new cartridges perform, but I imagine the shotcup can only reduce pellet deformation, and the resulting flyers.

Best regards,
WC

The rifled barrels (if I recall correctly, "canon raye dispersant" was the description in French, which translates "rifled dispersion barrel") are still seen on some doubles made in Europe. Fabarms made some OU's a few years back with one rifled barrel, the other with choke tubes. Verney-Carron and Beretta made similar guns for the European market in the recent past, perhaps still do. Those models are often referred to as "becassier" in French: woodcock specials. In addition to one rifled tube, other typical characteristics are very short barrels and light weight.

Using ferrets in Belgium.



Pete

Briley makes skeet tubes with straight rifling and I am told that it tightens the pattern by one point???
Bill