The French moved on to steel barrels a decade or two before anyone else. There was a time when it was just as unusual to see a Damascus barrel on a new French gun, as it was to see a steel barrel on a new English gun. In all the time I’ve spent studying French guns, I can’t say I ever saw a bias, safety concerns, or otherwise, about using Damascus guns. Nearly every gun shop in France had a few hanging around the place when I was there, and they were just old guns, waiting for a buyer. At that time, 20 bird seasons and two dogs ago for me, getting ammunition to run them wasn’t a problem. That may have changed by now.
I suspect the French were quite happy to have a cooperatively owned steel plant right in the center of their sporting and military gun making towns, and to be free of reliance on Belgium for Damascus tube sets. French proof was the highest in Europe, by law.
I’ve managed to avoid being bitten by that bug. Several times, over the years, while hunting with a small group, the topic of ammunition to feed someone’s English gun has come up, and the trouble it took to find it, and when the conversation turned to what ammunition I needed to feed my Darne, I replied “ Anything. They aren’t picky”.
If a store in some part of Minnesota sells ammunition, there is a better than good chance they have something I can run in a Darne.
I’m good with that.
Best,
Ted
