I just purchased a beautiful Francotte with very fine checkering, lots of engraving and chain link pattern on the Damascus barrels. I would love to shoot it but I am not sure if the wall thickness is safe. I have the vertical wall thickness gauge from Galazan most of you are familiar with. It has the three vertical rods for different gauges. I do know how to use it and I took measurements every three or five inches which I will list here. I would appreciate comments from knowledgeable members to guide me. I reload lower pressure 12 gauge loads. The bores measure .733 and .736 and the metric proofs convert to .728. I realize nobody can tell me if it is safe to shoot however I would like to hear from you based solely on the numbers below. Thanks all!
Measurements are from the breech:
Right barrel Left Barrel
3" .115 .097
6" .067 .064
9" .048 .046
12" .043 .034
15" .035 .023
20" .032 .022
It is marked 2 3/4" chambers and the rest of the measurements come in as safe in the areas I did not list.
