Here is some W. Greener for you, (a real visionary):
"The French system of breechloading firearms (he is talking about LeFaucheux) is a specious pretence, the supposed advantages of which have been loudly boasted of; but none of these advantages have as yet been established by its most strenuous advocates. How it is that the British sportsman has become the dupe of certain men who set themselves up for respectable gun-makers, I know not... There is no possibility of a breech-loader ever shooting equal to a well-constructed muzzle-loader; secondly, the gun [breechloader] is unsafe, and becomes more and more unsafe from the first time it is used; and, thirdly, it is a costly affair, both as regards the gun and the ammunition" "No fear need be entertained that the use of breech-loaders will become general". Writing in Gunnery in 1858
Great reading. One can see that French bashing is an old sport.
JC
Last edited by JayCee; 05/26/08 01:21 PM.
