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Greetings-
This will be my first post on this site; I have read and followed many of the threads posted here for a while, great stuff and lots of accumulated knowledge. Hopefully, someone will be able to help me a bit here-

I have come across a double rifle for sale locally, and have not had any luck in obtaining any information about it. It's a beautiful little gun, with a number of very interesting features, as you may agree-

The maker is "L. Christope- Bruxelles". Certainly Bruxelles is the location, I am not familiar with "L. Christope". Does anyone know anything about this maker?

The gun is a side by side, basic A+D boxlock extractor, with side clips and a hidden third bite. It shows very nice engraving, about 50% coverage of nice scrollwork, and traces of CC hardening in the protected areas. A non-automatic safety is gold inlayed. Double triggers, the front is articulated. The pins are not bushed. The bores are in reasonably good shape, not perfect by any means, but with sharp rifling the entire length. They show darkness in the grooves, but look very shootable.

It has 26" barrels, with a quarter rib and one fixed and one folding. The stock is a Prince of Wales type grip, very open, with a 14 1/2" LOP to a buttplate. The forend is a splinter type, and is badly oil soaked and near black in color. The butt has been refinished badly, but is salvageable and is solid, with decent wood.

The Caliber- number one unknown. It's previous owner was shooting .425 cast bullets of about 275 grains weight; the barrels are stamped "10.4" on the bottom. No other caliber markings of any kind are present. A chamber cast seems to indicate that the case is similar to a 10.75x68, except its only about 62mm long. Brass, I'm thinking, could be made from 9.3x74, but I'd like to know more about this caliber before I spend my hard earned money. The previous owner told the seller that he was shooting about 36 or 38 grains of 3031 in it, I have no idea how it shot with this load. I know he was using 444 Marlin brass, way too short, but there it is. What kind of velocity does this suggest?

This gun weighs 6 lbs 11 oz. That is not a typo. It is an absolute flyweight double rifle. Barrel wall thickness is minimal, as you would guess.

The owner wants $5500 for this piece. It fits me absolutly perfectly. I throw this gun up and I am laser-on point. Balance and carrys like a fine 28 guage. I am thinking of this as a Pig gun and general North American using gun. I'd like to hear some opinions, thanks!

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