I have a friend from England who worked for Malins back in the day. In his words...Malin did use cheap and sub-quality Spanish barreled actions and it used to drive the guys making the guns nuts..they'd spend many more hours than necessary trying to make things right. They pleaded with Frank to bring in better quality actions and barrels. Malin did alot of shady things, but was supposedly a very likeable guy and quite the story teller. I would be very sceptical when buying a Malin marked gun, the quality was all over the place. During this time period, many old name prestigous British gunmakers were doing what Malin was doing though....J. Blanch, Rigby, Powells, etc.
I at one time, very early in the game, ignorantly bought a "fake" gun. It was marked as a Francotte and built on a very early Sauer made boxlock action. The gun closely resembled a Lindner Daly. The quality was very good, but it was not a Francotte, it did not have the appropriate makers marks on the action and barrel flats and the serial number was all wrong. Why anyone would spend that much time faking a gun (the gun was 100% scroll engraved, Francotte name in a flowing banner and above average stockwork) and not put their own name on it is besides me. They should've been proud of the work they did to fake this gun!!
Dustin
