French Smoothbore

[Henry]

I had a discussion on other forums about that .....
Actually , yes , there are many old guns with front
and rear sight .

I wonder if the trend was firts to have front and rear
sights , rifle style , on the early matchlock and
weel locks , then gradually around 1680-1700 the trend
was the front sight only , shotgun style .
Later , after 1800 , with the adoption of rifling
by french makers went back to front and rear for rifles
and kept the front sight only for shotguns ?

Of course , this is only a theory .

Now , Tulle was the place where the good guns were made
not fancy luxury stuff as in Paris or Lisieux but a bit
better than the St

 

[makanaut]

I just received my copy of Russel Bouchard's book today. It appears to have alot of details and am looking forward to reading it.

 

[tg]

Either theory is quite possible I think...I would think as usual there may be the exceptions to the norm as in any time place or thing. I have wondered if guns specificaly made for the Indian trade or as gifts may have had rear sights omitted as to negate any advantage should the arm be pointed back at the giver, some think this is why the trade guns and hunting guns may have been of smaller bore than military guns as the larger bore was considered better in warfare...just some rambling thoughts there. I think the lack of unaltered surviving originals is the biggest barrier to knowing many of the details and variations that may have been offered but it is interesting to toss around thoughts and speculate based on what we have.

 

[Henry]

From what I understand , the guns traded are mostly
the cheap Li

 

[tg]

I believe I heard that Bouchard has another work that has not been translated into English that has a lot more info on the French guns, is this a fact??????? if so it might make for some very good reading.