doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Manufrance Ideal Grade 5 16 ga

Here are the pics of the Manufrance Ideal grade 5. Rather than put them in the quail hunting sequence I thought it better to start a new file. The gun has about 27 1/4" brls, is a BLNE with a wt of 6lbs on my bathroom scale. 14 3/8" lop to front trigger and 2 5/8 drop at heel with horn buttplate. It was made in 1931 and a good fit for me. I have only shot it a few times with 7/8 oz 2 1/2" reloads at some quail. By clicking on the pictures you will go back to the orig. size on the loading site that Binko recomended using in the photo posting primer.
I have not had much experience on loading pics on the net.









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Probably need to lose the suggestive pictures on the photo site.

Hello Dwight,

Very nice Id�al! And very original engraving!


You said on your other post that it has mod/imp chokes, but according to the
proofmarks it should be full/mod (choke/demi choke). Were the chokes opened?


Mine has the same original configuration choke/demi choke and it is very tight,
but I cannot make myself open them yet.

JC

According to Jean-Claude Mournetas in his book "Le fusil de chasse ID�AL",
1931 was the year of "double numbering", so yours -N�5/320- is, as you say,
of that vintage.


JC

JayCee
I was doing the other post from memory. The guy I got it from said it was IM Mod but I have not measured the chokes. I don't know if anything was done to it. Will have to have my smith measure it. I don't like opening up the guns that I own because we have such a variety of birds that we hunt here in the midwest US. I have had very good success using the polywad disc that you put on top of the shot column. I roll crimp it so that it becomes the overshot shot card for my application. You always know you are shooting a spreader that way when you are loading your shotgun. This gun worked very well on the quail that I shot recently.

Dwight,

I agree spreaders should be the way to go, but they are not available down here and, although I would very much want to reload, I do not have the equipment for it.

JC

JayCee,
You can get the the discs from polywad. They are just plastic. An inexpensive way to go would be to get a lee loadall 16 ga loader for resizing and priming. If you shoot the same gun you do not need to resize. You can prime with the lee or a priming tool. An inexpensive roll crimper and the componets shot & wads from any number of places and you are set to go. I might even have a spare 16 ga roll crimper.

JayCee,
You can get the the discs from polywad. They are just plastic. An inexpensive way to go would be to get a lee loadall 16 ga loader for resizing and priming. If you shoot the same gun you do not need to resize. You can prime with the lee or a priming tool. An inexpensive roll crimper and the componets shot & wads from any number of places and you are set to go. I might even have a spare 16 ga roll crimper.

Dwight, I didn't know Loadalls were so inexpensive. Can they be disassembled into various smallish parts to distribute in a suitcase?

The discs should not be a problem to bring down and the rest of the components are locally available. I might take you up un the roll crimper.

JC

They are not very big or heavy. I think you could lay it flat in a suitcase. My handle has a lock key holding it on. The length of the whole unit is 18 inches with the handle up. Probably find one on ebay. If you could find a way to put the primer in the shell you would not really need anything but maybe a powder scale. I wt all my loads. If you shoot it in the same gun no need to resize. I think there are crimpers for a drill but I like the old crank type. Let me know and I can check to see if the one I have works properly.