Reason asked is stumbled onto very very early steel one other day serial no 34 was cheap so bought it. I am thinking date wise possibly first week of production 1952 .It’s the FN stamped Europe release with rivert in forend so looks possibly real deal. Only thing is has a St. Louis Missouri stamped plain barrel which doesn’t add up to being the original. Seeing to my research they were not marketed to USA till 54. Have you ever seen or clues what is stamped on the early steel barrels.
Hey Rudolph that a pretty slick looking piece. Thing I found is train wreck in comparison but all there and shootable
Over on Shotgunworld there are many threads dealing with Double Auto history. I was somewhat intrigued by the short-recoil, two shot automatic. So I bought one. But most of what I knew about their history went in one ear and out the other. As for clays, I couldn’t hit sh!t with it until I bought a Poly Choked barrel for it. That helped immensely. But, I’m used to loading four on 1,2,6,&7. So for the same reason my O/U’s sit in the display case, it’s keeping them company.
We would get hung doing that here on the layout .Rules only allow us using auto to load 2 shell on 1,2,6,7. I will do some reading over on shotgun world. I have only seen 4 in 40 yrs needless to say unusual here.I would say somebody immigrated once upon a time and it was in their luggage. I will post couple of images tonight. Intend giving it good workout at skeet and sporting to test.
Hey Rudolph do you a swap for yours. Low miles, one owner only been to church on Sundays! Its the patina that counts and plenty of it here.
Our range is the same, you’re not allowed to load more than one except for doubles. But no one enforces it, and the owner knows us and doesn’t care. The rules are more for the walk-ins. When I first started shooting with my group back around 2010 one of my new friends pointed out that I was breaking the rules by loading four. I pointed out that so was he by loading two on singles, so it’s just a matter of degree, isn’t it? That was the end of that. Now even he does it when we shoot “Double Doubles” at Crazy. That’s Skeet doubles from the Trap stations. In Double Doubles the second pair is sent on the second report, and you’ve got to shoot them in the right order: High, Low, Low, High.
Rudolph, Don’t laugh just yet. A visit to Arts is on my bucket list next time ever over that way. I may just arrive some day in St Louis with my ugly swap stick. LOL Seriously that double auto of yours is very nice eye catching piece. One of the 4 I have ever seen was a 56 steel receiver job with the U rib that came from FN custom shop, real fancy with stipples hit miss checkering and the inlayed brass owner shield and pistol grip cap etc. They were unique guns and way ahead of their time.
