Hello everyone, I just acquired another Super Allégé (ultra Light) 12 gauge. Following the serial, I believe it is a 1977. It is in very good shape everything seems perfect except the barrel is puzzling me. I think the receiver and probably the wood were made by the Fabrique Nationale since the receiver is stamped FN. However, the marking on the barrel indicate Fabrique Nationale Herstal Made in Japan. May be that Ultra Light was the last run of the Belgium production and they had to get the barrel from Miroku. It is also possible that is not the original barrel because the barrel ring is not perforated as it should be for a light model. I would like to get your opinion.
Congratulations Biz. I’m pretty sure that’s not the original barrel unless they also made Super Lightweights in Japan. However, sometime in the 1970’s they changed from the drilled barrel ring to a “shaped ring”. The metal is thinned out in the center. Also, it’s once again mounted on a wedge. On second thought, they may very well have sourced the barrel and many other parts from Miroku and just manufactured the alloy receiver in Herstal.
Thanks Rudolph, I am glad you mentioned the "changed from a drilled barrel ring to a shaped ring" because that ring is exactly as you mentioned it. I was misled by looking at my Miroku made, Magnum Ducks Unlimited, which has that "thinned out "metal in the center and it is not a ultra light. Just for our common knowledge, I saw a brand new unfired 1990 Ultra Light on an European auction site.
I don’t think we’ll be able to determine much from the special serial numbers they used on these guns. Maybe there’s a date code on the barrel?
I dug up the original conversation and bumped it to the top. It seems I couldn’t decipher that date code two years ago.
I just don’t know. I’m thinking of asking over on shotgunworld. How did you come up with 1973? That year should be an underlined l.
Original SGW post if you want it https://www.shotgunworld.com/threads/20-gauge-auto-5-super-lightweight.537591/
Agree. Maybe engraver got a little happy with it and it all ran together. Looks a little fancier then a letter with line under.
It’s just a theory. FN experimented with alloy receivers and had them in limited production. When production was transferred to Japan, I doubt they would have bothered with that technology, assuming there’s more to it than just substituting aluminum for steel. Or maybe there were surplus alloy receivers already made. Either way, they’d have to source the rest of the parts from current production, and that was in Japan.
