doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com 4 Gauge anyone?

Getting older and getting harder to bring to the shoulder. Thinking of taking one of these behemoths pheasant hunting one last time. The hammerless gun is Belgian and was made in 1924. The hammergun is French and was made in 1869 and is dual ignition.

Very nice guns. We use Damascus in Montana, too. Can you explain the dual ignition feature? I cannot see it.

In the second picture you can see two cartridge cases in the buttstock but with pin holes and no primer pocket. Also in the butt not pictured is a pair of percussion nipples. You could load the case manually beforehand or you could actually load it in the traditional way with the ramrod on the bottom of the barrels. So this gun can be fired as both a central fire or muzzleloader.
I have a 10 gauge from the same maker with the exact same system. You can see the ramrod in the picture below.

Very cool. Beautiful guns.

I rememember a note by Maynard Buehler shooting his 2-bore. Were there ever any cartridges this large or double guns chambered for them? A half pound lead ball!!

There are 2 gauge, 1 gauge and 0 gauge guns but they were never meant to be fired from the shoulder. Most were punt guns made to dispatch large flocks of waterfowl while sitting on the water.

12BM, That hammer gun is French? 1869? Could we see the proof marks? Any name on it? Any mark to indicate who made the barrels? Would like for FAB500 to weigh in. Thanks.

That dual fire mechanism was advertised at the 1855 Paris Universelle.

Here is a picture of the barrel. I will take a picture of the barrel flats tonight. The barrels are stamped Bernard and the chambers are stepped as well as the cartridge cases.

On a side note, the gun was supposedly owned by Levi P. Morton who was the Vice President of the United States in 1888. Interestingly enough, he was also the Minister to France in 1881.

Unfortunately, I do not have any provenance to support this but the timeline makes sense as the gun was made in 1869 and he probably picked it up while he was in France. This was what the auction company said in the description when I bought the gun.

It came with 12, 4 gauge brass cases and 4 of them were loaded. I took them apart and old newspaper dated 1884 was used as wadding. A neat story if nothing else.

The gun might have made by a Parisian arquebusiere named Emile Henri LeFauré or FAURÉ. From Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faur%C3%A9_Le_Page
https://gw.geneanet.org/pierfit?lang=en&p=louise+emilie&n=faure

Arquebusier et fourbisseur in Paris (1865–1913), Warranted supplier to the Russian Imperial Court.
The old Fauré Le Page store is located at 8, rue de Richelieu in Paris

Emile was Henri Le Page's nephew, and Louis Didier Fauré and d’Eléonore Méliade’s son. He became partner with Gilles Louis Michel Moutier in 1865 and becomes sole owner in 1868.

He developed his international clientele and became the warranted supplier to the Russian Imperial Court. Taking part in each of the Universal Expos he accumulated honors in Paris in 1865 (First Class Medal), in 1867 (Silver Medal), in 1878 (Gold Medal), in 1889 (Grand Prix), and in Vienna in 1873 (Medal of Progress[11])

He was ordained Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur in 1878 and then Officer of the Légion d’Honneur in 1894.

The store opened at number 8, rue de Richelieu (at the corner with the rue de Montpensier which gives onto the Place du Théâtre Français), at the foot of the Royal Palace Hotel which opened its doors in 1909.

In 1913, the armourer Dumond took over Fauré Le Page but kept the brand name and formed a company in 1925.

Emile Henry Fauré Le Page died in 1929 and was buried at the Père Lachaise Cemetery.


Or it could be L. LeFauré, armorer in Paris, 1850-1872, 22 boulevard Montmartre. His father Pierre-Alexis Lefaure, an armorer in Presles, showed his barrels at the Paris exhibition in 1823, 1839 and 1844.


If the barrels are stamped "Bernard" it could be either Léopold or Albert BERNARD. Léopold was the preeminent barrel maker in all of France. There should be a date stamped on the underside of the barrels near the SN.

One of his Lefaure's ancestors may have been a barrel maker in Paris 1750-1790.
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/24942

In 1835 Lefaure working as an arquebusiere in Paris wrote a testimonial for Lefaucheaux about the sturdiness of the Lefaucheaux center break guns.

For the past two years that I have been manufacturing the so-called Lefaucheux hinge-action gun, I declare that this gun is still the only one that offers as much sturdiness, combining a simple and easy manufacture with all the advantages that all rear-loading guns have. I have several in commerce and among hunters who make extensive use of them. I see nothing that goes out of order in this gun more than in the piston gun. The flash hole is preserved from wear by the cartridge casing; and the connection of the barrel with the breech piece is equally guaranteed by the base. As a result, and experience has proven it, this gun will last at least as long as the piston gun that loads with a ramrod.
Lefaure,
Gunsmith, in Paris.

There are LeFauré guns for sale on naturabuy.
https://www.naturabuy.fr/FUSIL-JUXT...LE-CANON-A-PERCUSSION--item-9428658.html

On "Little gun" there is a Lefaure pistol that he apparently designed to get around the Flobert patent which has the identical markings.
https://www.littlegun.info/arme%20francaise/artisans%20k%20l/a%20lefaure%20gb.htm


Can't tell you much more with this very cursory search. Perhaps FAB can weigh in.

Those are amazing!