Show us your Guns!

[Barman]

I'm a Sports shooting fan from France.


I own two guns, a Marlin 336CS from 1986, in 30-30 cal which I enjoy shooting very much and which is very accurate with iron sights. The rifle is not scoped.
I'm not a great shot, here's what I can do on a good day at 54 yards:


And at 110 yards:


My other weapon is a French double action military revolver from the 19th century, an 1873 which fires 11mm black powder cartridges.
It belongs to the colonial wars era.. conquests of North & Sub Saharan Africa, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia.
During WW2 and Nazi occupation, resistants would often ream the chambers of those so that they could fire .45ACP rounds which were air dropped by the British RAF. Incredibly, the guns were able to digest those loads without exploding... most of the time!

Mine was rearsenaled sometime during its history, hence the great shape.

 

[Renault]

Bienvenue Barman!

Nice guns you have there! The 30-30 is a great cartridge. Still very popular here in Texas! I and my two boys still hunt with our 94 Winchesters!
I had a pair of mle 1892 French Ordinance revolvers in the 8mm Lebel cartridge. But they have gone the was of the dodo to new homes!

Thanks for posting pics!
Bob

 

[Barman]

Bienvenue Barman!

Nice guns you have there! The 30-30 is a great cartridge. Still very popular here in Texas! I and my two boys still hunt with our 94 Winchesters!
I had a pair of mle 1892 French Ordinance revolvers in the 8mm Lebel cartridge. But they have gone the was of the dodo to new homes!

Thanks for posting pics!
Bob

Thanks Renault! (are you a fan the car brand?)
I love Winchesters as well, lever guns in general are just beautiful. I'd like a 94 in .44 magnum but can't find one.
My dad has a 1892 revolver in battered shape, shrapnel marks everywhere but it still shoots fine. He's the one who gave me the passion of firearms, taking me out shooting with his Browning SA-22 (take-down) when I was 6 years old.
Have a nice day!

 

[Renault]

Thanks Renault! (are you a fan the car brand?)
I love

No, my older brother was the Prefect of Police in a well known Moroccan city!

I have several Winchester lever guns that I enjoy. If you look back in this thread you may find photos of some of them!

 

[Atticus Finch]

Nice guns you have there! The 30-30 is a great cartridge. Still very popular here in Texas! I and my two boys still hunt with our 94 Winchesters!

I think I've post this photo before, but here's my 1949 Model 336 and my 1962 Model 94...both in .30-30. I still hunt with them, although I don't hunt deer anywhere as much as I used to.

AF

 

[Renault]

I certainly understand AF! About all I've had the opportunity to hunt lately is a place to sit down!

 

[Joao Encarnado]

Nice pair!

 

[DeaconKC]

Welcome Barman! Thanks for posting some fine firearms.

 

[jkingrph]

Nice, I still have the old Marlin 336 SC in .35 Rem my father bought back in 1952. When he got older I loaded it with some cast .38 special bullets (.357) 158gr semi wadcutters so he could shoot it with lowered recoil and load it up for home defense. About the same time he bought me 39a rifle, a 22 cal. I was so small and it was such a large heavy gun especially for a .22 I had to have some kind of rest to shoot it , be it his lap, a log or tree fork. I never got around to getting a Marlin in 30-30, just did not have a need having the .35 Remington.

Since those days I have never lost my love of levers, having Marlins in 45-70, 38-55, 44 Mag, and my favorite a little Model 94cl in 32-20. I also have a few Winchesters, one in 45-70, a couple in .405 Winchester, and a couple of the 1894-1994 commerative models, fancy wood, 26 inch half octagon half round barrel, long pistol grip, crescent buttplate, Lyman tang sight, and roll engraving.

 

[Barman]

Thanks guys,
The 30-30 is really pleasant to shoot, and quite powerful too. I love it!
But I'm not a hunter, I wasn't taught to shoot guns in that purpose.
I got into firearms through my father, both for enjoyment at the range and for defending the homestead in case our lives are threatened.
The 1873 revolver is my home defense gun. I have it stored under our bed in a wooden case with a flashlight inside. Although the ammo it fires is really wimpy by modern standards, I definitely wouldn't dare to stand in front of it. Many tribal warriors lost their lives that way in wars France fought on the other side of the globe.
The 30-30 is way overpowered and I think would over-penetrate, going through walls, possibily wounding/killing neighbors in case of an home invasion.

 

[pawineguy]

Thanks guys,
The 30-30 is really pleasant to shoot, and quite powerful too. I love it!
But I'm not a hunter, I wasn't taught to shoot guns in that purpose.
I got into firearms through my father, both for enjoyment at the range and for defending the homestead in case our lives are threatened.
The 1873 revolver is my home defense gun. I have it stored under our bed in a wooden case with a flashlight inside. Although the ammo it fires is really wimpy by modern standards, I definitely wouldn't dare to stand in front of it. Many tribal warriors lost their lives that way in wars France fought on the other side of the globe.
The 30-30 is way overpowered and I think would over-penetrate, going through walls, possibily wounding/killing neighbors in case of an home invasion.

The pistol is a beautiful firearm. How are your gun laws in France in terms of being able to own handguns? I'm assuming carrying them outside of the home is not an option?

 

[Barman]

Hi, antiques (firearms made before 1900) are mostly unregulated & unregistered, you just need to be 18 years old to buy the handgun and the ammo.
Most "modern" handguns using smokeless powder ammo (like a 1911) require a licence, which anyone can get if they don't have a criminal record and are a sports shooter.
Carrying it outside is a no-go, except for going to the range, or if you're some priviledged person with connections to the government, or a Police officer.
There's nowhere near the same amount of freedom in France regarding gun laws than you guys enjoy in the US. But it's still possible to be legally armed at home.

 

[pawineguy]

Hi, antiques (firearms made before 1900) are mostly unregulated & unregistered, you just need to be 18 years old to buy the handgun and the ammo.
Most "modern" handguns using smokeless powder ammo (like a 1911) require a licence, which anyone can get if they don't have a criminal record and are a sports shooter.
Carrying it outside is a no-go, except for going to the range, or if you're some priviledged person with connections to the government, or a Police officer.
There's nowhere near the same amount of freedom in France regarding gun laws than you guys enjoy in the US. But it's still possible to be legally armed at home.

That's actually not too bad compared to some other European countries. Thank you for sharing, that pistol was a fantastic piece of engineering for its era.

 

[jkingrph]

That 11mm should be more than adequate for home defense, after all it was used by the military. 11mm is about 44 cal, a rather large bullet by todays standards, and even being propelled by black powder I would not care to be struck by it.

 

[GHT]

Can anyone help define a rifle for me? Guns are not for me, but I am a great fan of the Richard Sharpe series, depicting the Napoleonic Wars. What confuses me is that a rifle is a weapon with a spiralled barrel, spinning the round, so as to achieve greater accuracy of shot.

The musket of choice from that period was known as the Brown Bess. The first rifle, a fullstock flintlock with 30" tapered barrel and .62 calibre bore was England's first official rifle and began manufacture in 1800.

To me, both weapons look the same, they are loaded the same way, they use a ball for a bullet. How can a rifle be accurate, when muzzle loaded, and how can it spin a ball? And if the rifle was far superior to the musket, how come the production of the musket continued? Any authoritative answers would be most welcome.

 

[Barman]

Until the invention of the Minié ball in the 1840s, Muzzle-loading rifles were a pain in the butt to reload compared to smoothbores. The bullet rammed down the bore was oversized (remember lead is a soft metal) so that it could deform & take the shape of the grooves in order to achieve stability in the spin, but pushing it through required much more strength from the operator and thus slowed down reloading a great deal.
Smoothbore bullets were just made slightly oversized by being paper-wrapped.
Hence I would think the smoothbores kept being produced until the Minié system, and later on breech-loading systems. You also have to take into account they were cheaper to produce as well.

 

[MikePotts]

Sharpe's Weapons:

http://sharpecompendium.net/weapons/weapons.php

 

[Renault]

Baker rifles have a "Texas" connection too! As well as many other surplus arms from the Napoleonic era. Mexico ended up with lots of surplus British armament. Much of it used in the Texas Revolution of 1835/36.

Good to see you posting Mike. Hope you and the family are all ok!

 

[MikePotts]

Likewise Bob, we're doing fine. I just bought a new truck (edit: and had a pricey few days at tennis camp!) so probably no new shooters for a little while!

 

[Stearmen]

Can anyone help define a rifle for me? Guns are not for me, but I am a great fan of the Richard Sharpe series, depicting the Napoleonic Wars. What confuses me is that a rifle is a weapon with a spiralled barrel, spinning the round, so as to achieve greater accuracy of shot.

The musket of choice from that period was known as the Brown Bess. The first rifle, a fullstock flintlock with 30" tapered barrel and .62 calibre bore was England's first official rifle and began manufacture in 1800.

To me, both weapons look the same, they are loaded the same way, they use a ball for a bullet. How can a rifle be accurate, when muzzle loaded, and how can it spin a ball? And if the rifle was far superior to the musket, how come the production of the musket continued? Any authoritative answers would be most welcome.

That was a good series, I wish there were more! I was a little disappointed when I watched the first few minutes though, I thought it would be about Christian Sharps and his famous rifles.