Port side wood:
If you look at later Stoeger and James Wayne imports, the wood was getting very bland. This is quite nice for an R10. Nice to find a gun with it's factory buttplate still in place, and otherwise unaltered.
Barrel flat trivia:
70mm is a 2 3/4" chamber gun. The crossed lightning bolts means the gun was proofed in a finished state. Three sheaths of wheat is the mark for French tripple proof at the St. Etienne proof house, and it was done with French smokeless powder T. "Non pour la balle" means there is enough constriction in the left barrel that the factory didn't want you using pumpkin ball slugs out of it. 16 is 20 gauge, expressed in metric.
Broken down:
You can leave the barrels in place, and just remove the breech, or leave the breech in place and just remove the barrels. They break down into a nice little package.
A big and a little:
New 20 gauge and my 12 that I've owned for years. The 12 came from Steven Bodio, a trade towards the R11 slug gun he ordered, which, sadly, he no longer owns. I had the 12 restocked to fit me, in St. Etienne.
Both guns are right around the same vintage of production, late 1940s.
Not quite a matched pair, but, they handle very similar, and weigh just on either side of 6 lbs.
Best,
Ted
