Although serviceable it might as well be a wall hanger. I still have a G E Lewis in my safe with 2.5" chambers. The biggest problem for these old doubles is resale. Not in proof for smokeless powder would concern me but I can't substantiate that. This one appears to be a middle grade, well used boxlock, about 1900 vintage.
If the chambers are 2.5", which I suspect they are, ammo won't be found at Cabelas, but Gamebore makes and sells ammo here in the US for 2.5" chambers.Īlthough Francotte made many grades of sxs shotguns, most of the one's found here in the US were lower grade guns sold by Abercrombie & Fitch. This forum is always a big help to everyone. Thank you for the information and your knowledge sir. Otherwise I see a big investment there to bring it up to expectations of what once was. That's just from looking at the pics.ĭon't know about loose ribs, cut bbls, loose/off face breech. Unless the price is very low, AND you are ready for some gunsmithing work DIY, I'd stay away from it. I don't think the flat bottom grip cap would have fit on the orig stock which most likely would have had a round knob grip.įorend probably orig wood. It has a look of American Walnut to it, but maybe it's just that grain pattern. Stock as pointed out is heavily refinished, I'm not even sure it's the orig. It can be done w/o them but the inside will usually show the scrars on the side walls and parts from makeshift leverage attempts with screwdrivers and other assorted gimmicks. These are V spring actions and take some knowledge and a couple of special tools (that you can easily make actually) to disassemble and reassemble. Screws chewed up and not a lot of care taken in assembly. Polished and also gone over with a wire wheel. Disassembled and reassembled more than once for sure. The action has been tinkered with quite a bit. The bbl flats look gone over heavily with a wire wheel and rounded edges.
I do suspect a re-blue as the bluing is a heavy matted finish unlike the Francotte style of bbl bluing which was generally quite brite. At any rate, they still only have a BP proofing on them. The blued bbls look like steel, but could very well be reblued composite (damascus or twist steel) bbl's. That's why 'back-boring' a barrel can increase the degree of choke w/o ever doing anything to the actual choke section of the bbl itself.Īnyway,the gun is most likely short chambered (less than 2 3/4" chambers) if still in orig chambering. It's the difference in betw the bore dia and that of the dia of the choke. (Unlike many in the US who just check the latter measurement of the dia of the bore in the choke and call that the 'choke' of the shotgun, this is the actual correct way to figure it. Convert to inches/.000" and you have the 'choke in US terms. The difference betwe the two is the 'constriction' in m/m's.
The smaller M/M marking is the diameter of the bore in the choke. The larger M/M marking is the bore dia (checked a certain distance ahead of the chamber. You can figure out the chokes in each bbl by the difference in the M/M markings on the bottom of each tube/bbl just ahead of the bbl flats. For example like a Grade 45 which also would be an Eagle Grade. Not necessarily by the actual Francotte Grade. Their ser# production is published and usually goes by Lower, Medium & High grade guns. I go by the looks of the gun, engraving, quality of the wood, checkering, ect). (Their Grading # system is very confusing,at least to me. I would date the gun to approx 1895 by the ser# and if I'm correct in assuming that the Francotte is one of their Medium Grade SxS's of that era. So that somewhat dates the gun (pre 1898) NON POUR BALLE' was dropped from Leige Proof House use in 1897. The Oval w/Crown/AF inside the oval on the bbl flats is August Francotte's logo mfg'rs marking. Bbl proof is the Belgian 'final' Black Powder proof only ,no Nitro/Smokeless proof.
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