Damascus anomaly

[ArtS]

First, let me correct myself. I confused the actual details of the barrel layout. The wedding band is on a John Manton converted flintlock fowler hanging next to it. Also, the 10 gauge has a twist front section and the Damascus at the back. I am using the term loosely, but it appears to be a form of Damascus similar to Bernard. The gun is a Galand 10 gauge fowler. It has a 35" barrel with a rear V wing type sight. The barrel is very thick as can be seen from the last picture of the muzzle. The muzzle wall is 0.167" and the chamber wall at the flat (the thinnest point) is 0.356. The gun is heavier than a Scott single 8 gauge I own.

I am familiar with the French monobloc. The first picture is a Manufrance Simplex 26 that is much later fluid steel but has that construction. Most of the French guns I own are built that way. The second picture is of the Galand showing the location of the joint. It is positioned 16" or more down the barrel and no joint shows inside. The other pictures show closeups of the joint. It is obvious that they are made of two different materials. The front looks like a twist construction and the rear some sort of composite. If they are both considered a twist, they are very obviously not the same material. The pattern, ribband sizes and even, to me, the angle of winding are different. You will notice that rear pattern extends forward of the fore end where the taper was turned to merge the two sections and suddenly just runs out. As I say there is no joint seen inside, so I have to assume that the rear section was overlaid on the full length inner tube. The gun is early, heavy, has sights and has a 3-1/2 inch (at least) chamber. Based on that, Ihave to presume it was a market hunter type of gun.