finally its in the house

the only gun I ever packed in two bags

looks like a simple old hammer gun

over the weekend I was in denmark where it begun to grab the thing

here it is with a Manton muzzle loader and a Schultz&Larsen M. 38
SN 380, 6,5x58RD, came from the estate of an old danish hunter who shoot his roe deer all the decades with this little carbine (50 cm barrel).
its a very nice rifle and was clearly inspired by the short MS 1903 stutzen.

anyway, back to the shotgun, you probably notice its bigger than normal

SN is 5299

a anchor +crown mark I am not seeing before, anyone knows?

made by "A.Francotte Brevete A Liege" Auguste Francotte patent from Liege

one of the better known firms making best guns up to the great war http://littlegun.be/arme%20belge/artisans%20identifies%20francotte/a%20francotte%20gb.htm

never had a Francotte catalog in my hands but they exist
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Auguste-Francotte-dArmes-c1912-Catalog-/290893130400

https://www.cornellpubs.com/old-guns/item_desc.php?item_id=287

you see it before its a Lefaucheux or pinfire gun

the barrel is hold by a wedge in the action, broken on one side once

I think the damascus barrel was brown once

MG 1874 , maybe made in 1874

AF under crown on the barrel

belgian proof marks

and YES, its a 4 ga.

here with the steel cases
to be prepared I bought a 4 ga, 4" long Gevelot made cartridge with the help of louis in france.
the gun itself cost me the price of 20 cartridges so you can decide what is the better deal.

here with a brass case 14,5x114 dummy round you see without necking up the steel case( I dont recommend this)you got 88 mm maximum out of this.
dont worry about it, thinking by myself to shoot a shorter cartridge or lengthen the case with a paper liner.
BUT, I never see it before this gun having only a 3,5" long chamber and my steel case cut to 87,5 mm fit perfect in length.

turn the steel case down on the base from 26,8 mm to 26,3 mm what I measure on the gevelot pinfire cartridge. http://forums.nitroexpress.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=324441&an=0&page=0#Post324441

the chamber is actually very large, conical and it seems over 27 mm at the end.

notice the pin dont comes out vertically

a 9 mm Parabellum case in the muzzle

barrel seems to be around 23 mm diameter so inch pincher will deny its a 4 ga.

the secret of the screw, it hold a small rifle primer
the pin can by glued in anytime you want or just stick into the hole before you fire the gun

together with another belgian single shot gun, a 9 mm Flobert rimfire

gun will get a careful restoration - will see action on geese in autumn. hold the gun over the head into the sky its surprisingly good to handle and you can follow flying targets without problems.
recoil? we will see.

gun comes from sweden to denmark in 2006, Jørgen told me he never find a hint that shotguns bigger than 10 ga were used for geese hunting in denmark. I see this in the hand of a swedish hunter on the coast were you dont have much cover so geese will see you and flying very high.