What Is It?

[Dean Romig]

I was at a little gun shop today and the proprietor brought this out of the back room to show it to me.
It's a pretty little thing with 28" 20 ga. barrels, lithe and light and handles beautifully.
Prop. says he thinks it is built on a Francotte frame but most of the work, and probably the engraving is the work of Roy Vail.
It had a sling attachment on the lower rib which was removed and there was some rust on the side of the barrel on one side, probably from being in a case for a long time. The wrist has broken through and has been repaired though not invisibly.
Can anybody tell me what they know about this gun? In case he decides to sell it, what can I expect to pay for it?

Thanks for any information you can give me.





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[Jim DiSpagno]

Probably a Belgian guild gun. Stephen Cobb has a similar Roy Vail 20 for $2,500.00 on GI

[Virginia Hessler]

Dean
Roy vail was a costom gun builder. He only engraved his own guns and did not accept engraving commissions. This leads me to believe its of his own making.

He is most notably known for his clients of Eisenhower, Admiral Nimitz and Clark Gable,
Tom

[John Campbell]

This gun does appear to be built on a Francotte A&D action. The value of it resides mostly in Vail's work and/or possible ownership. The risky bit is the wrist. If the repair is well done, no matter. If not, well...

Still, with reasonable 3/4 or 7/8 oz loads, it should be fine.

[Austin J Hawthorne Jr.]

Roy engraved a custom Mod. 21, 20 gauge that I own, and shot at Ernie's this past June. I purchased this gun mainly because of the engraving theme. Scroll on the barrels and receiver along with an American Eagle on the floorplate. Although I have no provenance on this gun, I feel certain that it was commissioned for someone either in the military or federal government. Getting back to the topic of this thread, it most certainly looks like a Francotte action to me. If the wrist repair is solid and I wanted to use it as a field gun, I think 1,500 to 1,750 would be a reasonable price.

[Mark Ray]

Dean, except for the engraving, that gun is identical to a Raick Freres belgian 20 i have....identical...my gun has 25 1/2 " bbls.

[Brian Dudley]

What is it with doubles like this always being kept in the back room of gun shops?

[Bill Davis]

I've owned several Roy Vail shotguns--a 20 and a 28 bore. Both were exactly like the one pictured. They are built on Belgium sourced actions, not unlike a Francotte but I do not believe they were the action maker. Roy loved to build bird guns and these surely qualify! In 20 ga, I'd value the gun around 2k retail. 28's bring a premium of perhaps 1/3rd. I've also seen Roy Vail rifles built on Mauser actions and one used a 722 Remington action. He liked varmint calibers and whitetail guns.

[Dean Romig]

posted to my own thread... TGO






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