Ok, thought everyone was satisfied. I'll give a human interpretation...it won't be literal but will be understandable.
Surperb and astonishing French O/U
Damon-Petrik
The Unknown
Damon-Petrik…This name is at once one of the best known French gunmakers and the most unknown. The O/U guns produced by this gunmaker, reconizable by there tile lock crowning the barrels, are familiar to just about everyone, but we are all ignorant of their history. It is time to ift the curtain.
When I discovered on the pages of this magazine a reader’s letter entitled “A Petrik without Damon,” over a year ago (in “Hunting Guns” nr. 70), I said to myself that this was my homework to send to this reader the most precise information in my possession. For several years I have been passionate about this mark, such that it led me to become interested in its history and to shed light on poorly known aspects and bring to light a lot of assumptions and even inaccuracies. Because let’s admit that the brand has not always been treated fairly in works devoted to hunting. Thus, Pierre Louis Duchartre, in his “History of Hunting Arms and Their Use”, published in 1955, only talks of lateral locks of the Francotte type without a word for the tiled lock of Petrik. Then, closer to home in 1990, Dominique Venner called it “a fabrication of the post WWII era.” I am going therfore to try to reconstruct here the history, the true history, of this firm. Boniface Petrik is not of Swedish origin but Czeck. He was born 5 May 1880 in Temice, a small village of Moravia, before being naturalized as a French citizen in 1926. Neither was he an engineer, but was rather a gun maker and owned a gunshop in Paris up until he decided, probably around 1910, to move to Bayonne.
A Present for his Wife:
Petrik chose the great south-west in order for his wife to engage in her favorite sport, live-pigeon shots. The seaside village of Biarritz was then run by fine shooters, of which Madame Petrick was one, a tough competitor whose name can be found frequently as medalist in the live pigeon competitions of that period.
Her gunmaker husband thought that an O/U shotgun could be easier for her to aim, and subsequently for all sport shooters. It had been more than 100 years with no O/U hammerless action gun capable of competing with the SxS’s then in Europe – the several O/U's made since the beginning of the 18th century not being able to make the weight.
Boniface followed up on his idea and got to work, and quickly ran into his first difficulties; How to lock the upper barrel? With what types of lumps (or hooks)? And how to insure percussion, difficult to do using only oblique firing pins?
If the final gun born from this research is now well known and has been seriously describe by specialists, one completely ignores the two prototypes that the gunmaker fabricated for his wife. One can all the same suppose that the first Damon models were very close to being made. They had a conical tile closing system – of increible precision which brings the point of attachment close to the source of force – two lateral hooks and barrels without an intermediate band, which elimiated lateral vibrations.
In 1913, Jean Breuil was 37 years old and a known barrel maker in Saint-Etienne. He already had a great deal of experience; at the age of 13, he became an apprentice; he forged damascus barrels when he was 17 and passed with success the examinations for obtaining the title of “artisan,” on his majority at the age of 21 during this time period. Madame Petrik, who in addition to being a fine markswoman, was quite knowledgeable about weapons technique. She used Breuil barrels and according to the press, he was quite proud to offer his barrels to the famous lady. Later on, Damon made actions for Jean Breuil, but not . .
. . .missing page 103
Last edited by Argo44; 02/13/24 11:47 PM.
