Manufrance Ideal
 

I have become interested in Manufrance Ideal Grade shotguns and I'm just curious if anybody here has shot one or owned one and has any opinions on them.

Very interesting double, should handle like a dream for pheasants. the problem could be finding the safety in the heat of battle.

The French seem to build guns with awkward safeties as I have come to learn with the Darne type guns.

I've got a 20 ga. with 30" barrels. It has the lunette trigger guard, so definitely not a cold weather gun. Very sleek and well balanced. IIRC it was made in 1898. The safety just locks the triggers from being pulled. Probably okay, but I'm not overly confident that a hammer wouldn't drop if it was sharply struck or dropped.

I like the looks of the lunette trigger guard but it appears that it would not work with any kind of gloves. Just out of curiosity what are your 30" barrels choked at. It seems like a lot of these tended to be choked fairly tight from what I have seen. What grade is yours?

It was a while ago that I measured them, but I'm pretty sure they were full and modified. The lug is engraved where the grade is usually marked and I never positively nailed it down, but I think it was a grade 4.

If you wouldn't mind I'd love to see some pictures.

I have a Costo Super branded Ideal, from what I understand Manufrance labelled these to sell to retailers. Nice shotgun. As far as the safeties go, yes it is a pain to use but you need to get used to it like the side lever of a Darne(my R-11) some did have a push button, or the Greener button on the side. As far as only blocking the trigger, it is hard to think of any pump or semi-auto safety that does any more than block the trigger.