doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Varney-Carron bankruptcy

Ted:

Is Bretton still in business?

JOhn

I couldn't get enough of a .600 NE VC imported by Ken Busch, but common sense prevailed. When an importer takes on a high end brand, he often sells some of his first batch for very good prices in order to make his minimums. I suspect Ken did that, and I foolishly did not take advantage. By the way, Ted, do you have pictures of those girls?

John,
Darne is gone. The last I heard of the Bretton, it was being produced in Czechoslovakia, with a plastic barrel band and trigger guard. I have no idea if it is still built today.

Eightbore,
The bar owners would seek out a pretty Irish student who spoke French, not terribly uncommon in France. Once the girls figured out you spoke English, they were intrigued.

Once they figured out you used a toothbrush and deodorant, you were in.

Best,
Ted

________________________________________________________________________________
Bet if they found out you were from Detroit, and rode a Cub, you were back out on your ass again.

That requirement left quite a large group of American students out in the cold.

I noticed some pretty huge cultural shifts in process while I was there. These guys seemed to think the only market that really mattered was the French market. But, none of them were married, or had kids. One had a sister, who had married an Algerian, converted to Islam, had a few kids, and had removed herself from her French family. Those kids were not a growth market for any artisanal gun maker, and I knew that then.
Excepting the Irish bar maids in Lyon, I met only two foreigners in St. Etienne, an Englishman, who was staying in the same hotel I was, he had been there a week on business with a car parts manufacturer, he had been mugged his second night of the trip walking from a restaurant to his hotel, and couldn’t wait to get home.
We had breakfast together his last day there, I lost his contact information, and never saw him again, too bad as he did shoot back in England. The other guy was an American who married a French girl, and went home with her. He worked in the French post office, and allowed me to struggle for a few moments, trying to explain I wanted to mail some postcards back home, and then spit out “Sir, did you want to buy some stamps for your letters”, doing so in a perfect midwestern accent. He was originally from Cleveland.
I went home thinking the writing was in the wall, much like the gang tag on the buildings in St. Etienne. I remember thinking it was not going to be around forever, and, it wasn’t.

Best
Ted

Any news about Vouzelaud? As I understood their operation, they basically contracted with outworkers in St Etienne to make their guns. It would be a shame if the entire industry (at least as far as sporting arms are concerned) were to go under.

Prior to opening my current business I worked for a Military/Law Enforcement contractor that had a close relationship with Verney-Carron. The less-lethal Sage Deuce was a licensed copy of the V-C flash ball, offered in 37mm and 40mm and the company would often import parts for it from France. I met “the old man” Pierre, his son Guillaume and their sales manager many times at IWA, Shot Show and our factory in Michigan. Interesting family to say the least. Pierre loved to hunt with large caliber double rifles and his son Guillaume was always very focused on growing the military and law enforcement side of the business.

Their head gunmaker Jerome left to work for Rigby a few years ago, maybe there were signs then that the company was moving away from the bespoke gun business. From what I recall they only built 50-75 custom guns a year. Hopefully they can find a way to keep it going, would be a shame to lose such a historic European manufacturer.

Channing Will
Will Bros. Restoration

The way I understand it V-C is not going anywhere. They are restructuring and requesting debt relief.

When I trained there the custom shop ( former Damas) operated under the same roof as the production facility but separately. V-C manufactures a wide range of barrels (Hastings and blanks for other companies) , Flash ball, sporting rifles, sporting shotguns , military and law enforcement guns.

I hope they get over this bump in the road!

I’m thinking this is more than a bump in the road-more like a bump in history.
I wish them well.

Best,
Ted

Back when I was still an active outdoor writer, I got to tour the Federal plant in the Twin Cities. At that time V-C was making the "Metro" barrels for Hastings and Federal was making the sub-sonic loads to go with them. An interesting project. Another outdoor writer who lived in the Cities regularly hunted waterfowl just outside city limits. He was perfectly legal, but neighbors disturbed by the gunfire would call the cops. Can't recall his name. He was the guy who came up with the Metro barrel concept. They were at least 3 feet long, and screwed into your regular barrel. We got to shoot some targets with them. It was like sticking a long but very light broom handle into the end of your shotgun. With Federal's Metro loads, the resulting sound was about like a .22. Even though the barrel didn't add that much weight to the gun, getting used to swinging it at a crossing bird would require some getting used to.