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Stephen, I am not sure if I fully understand the Belgian proofmarks nor did I spend much time yet on researching. There are a lot of marks to deal with on the flats and on the barrels. Some, I have no idea what they are. My initial concern was simply measure wall thickness for safety and go from there. I just got the gun two days ago in the evening. My guess is all the barrel work was done in the USA.
I will take pictures as soon as I can and post them here. I think members might find it interesting.
belgian proofs feature a reasonably useable metric - the weight of the barrel set when it underwent proofing. it's usually very visible and easily readable - as an example - 1 k 572 - which is 1.572 kilograms.
one of the handy dandy conversion functions indicates that is 3.46566676 pounds...round that off to 3.466 pounds. a barrel set is considered to be out of proof when more than 3% of the proofed weight is absent.
another handy dandy conversion function indicates that 97% of 3.466 is 3.362. so, if the present weight of the complete barrel set is below 3.362 pounds, by belgian rules those barrels are out of proof.
the problems of this system are quickly understood - they measure the set, rather than individual tubes, they do not provide allowance for opening chokes or extending chambers (either of which will reduce the weight), nor for shortening the barrels....and i have always wondered about the removal of a front sling swivel, quite common on belgian guns.
just a variation on the old rule - you pays your money and takes your chance...
