Interesting 10 Gauge

[ArtS]

I posted a thread on another board about this gun but thought I would get comments from the many 10 gauge shooters here. This is my version of Pig in a Poke (as we say in KY). The auction pictures below were not great but given the fact that no one else bid and the description didn't list any major faults, I was intrigued enough to pay a few hundred for it. Also, it is a single to which I am partial.

My observations from the listing were:

Has some serious age on it.
Gun looks pretty substantial.
Barrel is listed as 35".
Listed as a 10 gauge.
Listed as a "French Made Single" but is marked "Galand Paris" which is a maker that made some really nice guns. The title is one which isn't going to draw a lot of interest. I believe they were Belgian but had offices in Paris and England.
The picture shows a heavy rear sight but no front rifle type sight.

One of the only single Galand's I found on the internet was in a museum and was a 10 gauge bore rifle.









I was in the hospital for 5 days starting a new medicine but got out Sunday afternoon and received the gun today. I was really surprised. It will be a few days until I can take some new pics, but in sum the gun is way more than I expected.

The only real faults I havefound are that the nose cap has been knocked off (need to make a new ebony one), there is a little sliver off the edge of the fore end, likely lost with the nose, and the fore end checkering needs to be recut due to wear. A few wood dents need to be raised. Other than that it is in great shape and looks much better than the pictures.

It is obviously a single waterfowl gun. The barrel is 35" part octagon/part round. The bore is .774 from end to end, so I believe it to be original. It does look like it hasn't been cleaned in known memory. There is a large amount of roughness but looks like there are no pits . If there, they are very small. It looks like simple honing and polish of a few thousandths would completely clean it up. Choke is .040. Function is perfect. Locks up wth absolutely no play and good fit on face. A .002 feeler will go in between the breech and face for a total of about 1/8" around the top edges, so there is a slight bevel around the edge, but it won't start to close into battery with a .001 shim against the face.
The stock dimensions are surprising with 1-1/2" DAC, 2" DAH and 13-1/2" LOP. Chamber measures 3-1/8"with a tight Brownell's gauge so I assume it is 2-7/8" with a long FC.

The octagon breech is 12" long. The chamber walls on the flats are over 1/4"; much thicker near the "Points". Forcing cone area is 0.2". Barrels are .15+ at the end of the fore arm and .125 behind the choke. Altogether the most robust and thickest 10 I own.

The barrel is interesting from a construction standpoint. The round front section is 1" at the muzzle. The rear octagon section is 1-1/8" across the flats at the chamber and tapered slightly to 12" forward where it tapers down to blend into the round front. What I find unique is that the round front is a fine twist pattern but the octagon section is made of a bolder laminate pattern. It is obvious when looking at the tapered transition that a fine gauged twist was over laid at the rear part by a laminated layer with all of it forge welded into one blank.

The barrel weighs 3# 10 oz or so. Total gun is 9 # exactly. The back action lock has a rebounding hammer. The gun is a functional match to my 8 ga WC Scott & sons Light Waterfowl single which has a 32" barrel and weighs 10 # exactly. Overall build quality is high with the general impression of being a high quality and very solid gun.

This gun has a barrel of similar size and thickness to the Scott and is legal for hunting. Given the barrel thickness and condition I think this would hammer about anything in the flyways with bismuth loads. This with a gun 150 years old. I have 4 or 5 old Parker Damascus, Laminated and Twist 10's I shoot often and the construction of this guns barrel is far heavier than any of them. I will take some better pictures in a couple of days, and as soon as I can give it a deep cleaning and inspection I planon trying some moderate loads in it.

My quest for singles has now filled the 8, 10, 12 and 16 gauge slots with a W. C. Scott and Sons, a Galand, a nice Birmingham hammer gun and a Manufrance (the only hammerless) in the same order as the gauges. Their age is around 1880. I am continuing to try and find the small bores at a not break the bank price.

As I have aged, I find it appealing to grab a light easy to handle simple gun to carry along for walks on the property.