As you can tell from the title of this post, things might have gone better today with the MAC. Sparing all the suspense, I ended up buying a broken gun. Why you might ask, well, it was a friend selling it and he had never fired the shotgun. I put 75 rounds through it without any problems (a bit stiff to open with the Federal due to firing pin drag, but it loved the Winchester). After much fun with it, after taking the photographs, another friend closed the action and dry fired it and the right hammer pin broke. He doesn’t even realize he did this and I am not going to say anything (if not him, I would have likely done it). I hope there is some way to get this fixed without spending a whole lot of money, but I fear what with no surplus of MAC shotgun parts out there, such will not be the case. So, in sum, you might say a friend broke my friend’s gun, so I bought my friend’s gun.
Now brushing off the fact that it is now a single barrel shotgun, and I am not entirely convinced of the robustness of this particular French side by side, here are the particulars.
It does have 2 ½” chambers. I did elect to shoot the 1oz load when I saw the double proofs. The action was tight (it will hold the cellophane wrapper of a CD) and before shooting I tightened all the screws. The shotgun was very comfortable to shoot with these loads and recoil was moderate if not pleasant. The shotgun fit me very well and I was hitting with good regularity. I am not sure how to read the choke markings, but the gun did not appear to be over tight in the chokes (so they may have been opened up by a previous owner). I really enjoyed shooting this gun and I would like to get it working again. I am wondering if perhaps the broken hammer might be repaired or modified to take a Smith and Wesson type hammer pin. If a part has to be made, I would expect it to be a pricey prospect (unless some gunsmith was feeling charitable towards me and the old gun). If anyone has had a similar repair done quickly and cheaply, I would appreciate it if you would kindly share the contact information for who did the work for you.
As promised here are the photographs:
Barrel markings:
Note: The oval proof is the Paris house. The N.A. with proof mark is for a non-assembled proof of the barrel. The second proof indicates the proof of the finished gun.
I thought this interesting, a serial number on the stock:
Here is the broken pin (I got into the action, easy enough by the way, I found this part, confirming my worst fears):
