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It seems that every time a French gunmaker is mentioned, this leads to high-tempered discussions about French guns, and the French in general.I spent a lot of time in France and can say the following:
- France is one of very few countries in Europe where every man can hunt (courtesy of the French Revolution) without having to spent vast amounts of money.This means that besides the upper-class(hunting in Europe is tradittionaly a upper-class/snob affair) there are legions of French people in the country-side who hunt on a regular basis.
-Until 25 years ago, when the use of buckshot was banned, the French were very much shotgun-only hunters. Since then they switched to rifles for big game (driven boar hunting is very popular) and have since imported Marlins, Winchesters and especially Remington Woodmasters(280) and Browning Bars (300WM) by the truck-load.Under the impulse of Chapuis, Verney Carron...the double express rifle became the gun of dreams for those willing to invest extra.
As for the French gunmakers/firms:
Big firms (Manufrance in particular) made good, middle-priced guns for the masses. The wealthy ordered top-class guns from Belgium and England or from French makers such as Granger.
The French are of course very chauvinistic. They love their country and its traditions but, at the sime time, have always been very innovating. "Vive la différence" ("it's good to be different")they say, and they do try hard to be different. Not only in politics but also in cars, guns...
The result? A mix of traditional guns and weird French designs that never became popular elsewhere.
Compared to England the French legacy is clearly limited. But they had their moments:
-The Lefaucheux, fore-father of all later break-action shotguns and rifles.
- The Pidault over/under (1885) with bifurcated lumps and trunnions on the side of the barrels. Later coppied by Boss, Woodward, Francotte...
-The Clair semi-auto shotgun (1880), first to emploi a gas-operated piston.
-The Lebel (1886), first small-bore rifle with smokeless powder, shooting a solid bronze bullet.(mono bullets are clearly nothing new)
Etc
Greetings,
Livinus

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