doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Thoughts on this French SxS,pics and info added

Runs with the Fox, I don't know about the French being discourged from building guns. There is some pretty fantastic stuff they have built over the last 200 years if not longer, and having seen some from Granger among others I don't think their best builders are second rate at all. We just don't see them often enough in our English literature or gunshows. GIs didn't get to drag a lot of them home after the war as France was not a conquered country like Germany.

Double proof, which is good. Alex Martin was another maker that did the ribless sxs thing.

The French--unlike the Spanish, Germans, Italians, and Brits--never really made a concerted attempt to penetrate the US shotgun market. But from the French doubles I've seen, it's unusual to find one that's not well-made, even if very plain. Manufrance Robusts are the ones we see most often, and they were more or less the Stevens 311 of France in terms of numbers made--but much higher quality. And the "quirky" title definitely has to go to the French: Darne/Charlin, Manufrance Ideal, Petrik OU. They didn't all just copy each other, for sure.

The owner says the maker is A. Weber, chambers are 65mm with a 4 digit ser. # Does Weber ring any bells?

A. Weber could well have been the dealer that sold it. RWTF needs to think and search his own preconceived feelings before he posts his idiotic comments. Like Jerry said, the French have built some pretty fantastic (and unique) guns over the years. Even if you don't like the French (for whatever reason) that doesn't take away their design genius. As far as quality goes, all of the French guns I've seen have been of excellent quality by nearly anyone�s standards.
Steve

As noted upthread, this gun has been on GB for quite a while - at least one and perhaps two years. Also as noted, this is a gun very well suited to use in the thick, for those who like light and short. I think it's still overpriced, even at the reduced price. (As a side note, about a month ago a friend invited me grouse hunting over a couple dogs he's rehabbing and insisted I use his 24 inch barrel Browning 20 ga O/U. In the tangles of bittersweet and multiflora rose we worked, it was a very manageable gun.)

Now, as to the French thing some have expressed. I regularly use a prewar 16 ga French sxs, 27.5 inch barrels. It's a light, solid, and very well made gun. It handles perfectly in grouse and woodcock coverts and carries well all day. I bought it ($500) from the son of the GI who took it as his trophy from a barn in the Norman countryside in the summer of '44. Most of the older (prewar) French guns I've seen have some problem or other with pitted barrels (mine doesn't - I held out for a gun without pitting problems), which I attribute to corrosive primers in a relatively damp climate and perhaps a less-than-assiduous approach to cleaning. The craftsmanship I've seen has been uniformly very good or better, and the design, fit and finish excellent.

I also own and use a German gun (RWTF, I'm looking at you ... ), a Simson 12 ga sxs, and it works perfectly well for small game, too. It's just a different gun.

I think it's fair to say that we here in the USofA don't know quite enough about French guns b/c they never really tried to make a dent in our market (unlike, say, the Belgians) or b/c not enough came home as trophies (unlike the German guns picked off piles after May 8 '45). But that does not mean the French guns are not excellent guns.

As to this one: I'll pass - de gustibus. I'm not fond of the ribless design.

One thing no one's mentioned is that French gun barrels are general measured in metric lengths, hence guns like Dave in Maine's having 27.5" barrels (and being uncut).
Steve

Maybe the French gun culture whereas one gun does all and then is passed down from generation to generation, for example, the eldest being the recipient of the then father�s shotgun and then and only then the rest of the sons having to go out and buy their own shotgun to begin the process all over again? With this type of gun culture throughout France, the French gun manufacturers felt that supplying the French population with guns was the only business they really needed. No? Or am I completely full of�����.?

Agree with Dave about pitting on quite a few French guns, which I've also attributed to the old corrosive primers.

One other issue to look out for in French doubles is very heavy trigger pulls. Not sure why that's more common than, say, with British guns. But trigger work can be pricey. So if a heavy trigger is an issue for you, make sure you drop in a couple snap caps and check before you make the deal.

Why do you think this is "French gun culture?"

I've never heard nor experienced this sort of thing.