Ferlach, Austria: The proof house's number, followed by a dot, then by a 2-digit number for the year, as: 346.33 for the 346th gun proofed in 1933. Also, an individual gunmaker's code appears in the following format: a 2-digit number followed by a dot and then typically a 4-digit number where the two digit number is the code for the gunmaking. May 17, 2012  I need to know the year of manufacture of a double barelled shotgun made by LIEGE UNITED ARMS COMPANY BELGUM. I know there are many markings that could narrow it down to a model. The only number i have is what i believe to be a serial number 7649 thanks. High Grade Shotgun Dates of Production: YEAR: GUN # AUGUSTE FRANCOTTE - Best Grade: 1887: 14211: AUGUSTE FRANCOTTE - Best Grade: 1888: 14229: AUGUSTE FRANCOTTE - Best Grade. The serial number of a Browning firearm is usually found on the gun's receiver, but that location depends on the model number and make of the gun. Browning maintains a database of owner's manuals that can show gun owners exactly where the serial numbers are on their particular models. MAISON LEPAGE A LIEGE: mark of the manufacturer LEPAGE street of Augustins, 26 in LIEGE. Registered with the proofhouse of Liege of 1919 to 1961. (See site) 5411: serial number. ADH: manufacturer of barrels of rifles DELVAUX-HEUSE Arthur de Fraipont (valley of Vesdre close to Liege).

1. Liege Shotgun Serial Numbers
2. Liege Shotgun Serial Numbers Lookup

Belgian Best Shotguns

By Chuck Hawks

Let's start by reviewing the definition of 'best gun': As used here, best gun means a double-barreled shotgun of the highest quality. One of those few shotguns intended to compete in the marketplace primarily on the basis of quality, design, workmanship and finish rather than just price. A best gun is intended to be competitive with the best that any other shop can build. Most best guns are decorated with engraving, fine line hand checkering, etc. and they are usually available with different levels of adornment. Best guns are typically bespoke guns, or are at least available as bespoke guns.

Liege, Belgium has been a gunmaking center for centuries. The Liege proof house was established in 1672 and it is the oldest European proof house still in operation. Since the evolution of the modern side-by-side and over/under hammerless shotguns in the late 19th Century, Belgian gunmakers have turned out some of the best.

Today Belgian made guns have a deservedly high reputation, but this was not always the case. From the late 1800's through the decade immediately following the Great War (W.W. I), in addition to best guns, a great number of relatively low grade guns and also double gun barrels were manufactured in Belgium. (This was much the same situation as occurred with Spanish guns in the decades immediately following W.W. II.) Belgian twist barrels, especially, were viewed with suspicion, sometimes with good reason. American high grade guns, for example, usually came with British, German, or American made barrels. Only lessor quality American guns were made in Belgium or supplied with Belgian barrels and large numbers of cheaply made private label (house brand) shotguns were imported from Belgium. In the 1930's this situation slowly improved.

I think that, for American shooters, the introduction of the Browning Superposed shotgun (B-25), the last gun design of the great John Browning before he died in 1926, was the turning point. The Superposed was introduced in 1931 and to this day it is produced by the arms making giant Fabrique Nationale (FN) in Belgium.

This boxlock O/U gun became the most popular double barreled, high grade gun in the U.S. It worked as intended and no one could reasonably question the quality of materials or workmanship employed in its manufacture.

The Superposed was produced in 12, 20, 28 and .410 bores. There were Field, Magnum, Trap, and Skeet versions. Barrel lengths of 26.5', 28' and 30' were offered for field guns. The 12 gauge Magnum Model had a 30' barrel and the Trap Models were available with 30' or 32' barrels. Any combination of Full, Improved Modified, Modified, Improved Cylinder, Skeet and Cylinder chokes was available in all models.

Superposed shotguns featured ventilated rib barrels that were struck full length, French walnut stocks, hand cut checkering and hand engraved receivers. A gold-plated, selective single trigger and selective ejectors were standard. The manual safety also served as the barrel selector. A glossy stock finish and highly polished, luster blued barrels made the guns standouts in any company.

In my youth Browning Superposed guns were offered in four grades. The entry level was the Grade I (a very nice shotgun), followed by the Pigeon, Diana, and Midas grades. All of these guns were functionally identical. The difference was in the grade of wood and the increasingly elaborate checkering and engraving patterns. The Grade I featured a blued receiver and the Pigeon and Diana grades had silver gray tone receivers. The Midas grade featured a blued receiver set off by gold inlays. Most Superposed guns came with semi-pistol grip stocks and rounded forends, although pistol grips and semi-beavertail forends were supplied on some models.

Browning Superposed Special Duck. Illustration courtesy of Browning Arms.

Today the FN/Browning Custom Shop in Herstal, Belgium offers bespoke Superposed shotguns on a special order basis. The Pigeon, Diana, and Midas grades are still offered, along with a myriad of other engraving designs, some with false sideplates. In addition, practically any special engraving pattern or custom enhancement is available on one of these guns. Typical delivery time is 6-8 months.

Also available from the Browning Custom Shop in Herstal is the BSL side-by-side shotgun. This is a bar action sidelock in the British game gun tradition. It comes standard with double triggers, selective ejectors, straight hand stock and splinter forend. Gauges are 12 and 20 and available receiver finishes are case colored or French gray. The LC1 grade features scroll engraving and the LC2 features an engraved hunting scene. Special engraving patterns can also be accommodated. For further details on these and other Browning Custom Shop guns, visit the Browning web site at: www.browning/custom

FN/Browning guns are not the only best guns made in Belgium, of course. FN is the industrial giant of Liege, the 500 pound gorilla of Belgian gunmaking and the only surviving major manufacturer, but there are still a few small specialty firms.

Representative of these and best known in the U.S. is Francotte. Auguste Francotte & Cie was founded in 1805 in Liege to produce military arms. Later they turned to sporting arms, and soon garnered attention as a builder of best guns in the British tradition. Francotte guns became well known in the UK and were imported into the USA by Abercrombie & Fitch.

Today all Francotte shotguns are bespoke. (Francotte also builds bespoke bolt action and double rifles, the latter with back-action sidelocks.) There are no standard models beyond generic 'hunting' and 'pigeon' types. Both O/U and side-by-side configurations are offered.

Actions are formed from forged chrome-nickel steel in the Francotte workshop. Actions can be either an H&H type bar action sidelock or Anson & Deely type boxlock. Action finish can be case colored, French gray, or blued. Double triggers are standard but selective and non-selective single triggers can be ordered. A manual or automatic safety is optional.

Barrels are also formed in the Francotte workshop. Francotte barrels are drawn from metal bars and are of the chopper lump type. A matted rib and automatic ejectors are standard. Barrel lengths and chokes are to customer order, and the customer may specify the exact shell and load with which the gun is to be patterned.

Stocks are hand made. Straight hand or pistol grip stocks are available in the grade of walnut selected by the customer. Forends can be either splinter or beavertail type with an Anson forend latch. Fine line checkering is hand cut in point or custom patterns and stocks gleam with a hand-rubbed oil finish. Multiple gun and multiple barrel sets are a Francotte specialty.

Cased pair of Francotte sidelock shotguns. Illustration courtesy of DoubleGunshop.com.

A myriad of special features such as assisted opening, special engraving, gold or silver inlays or medallions, hand detachable locks, special sights and so forth are available on Francotte double guns. Typical prices start at $18,000 and run to $80,000 (or possibly beyond), depending on customer requirements. Customers are invited to observe their gun being made at any or all stages. Information about Francotte guns is available online from: www.doublegunshop.com/francotte

The Belgian gun trade today is but a shadow of its former self. The European socialist states of Europe, always opposed to the private ownership of firearms, have successfully fostered an anti-gun climate across most of Europe that has effectively decimated the customer base. But, as is often the case in such circumstances, the very best firms are the last survivors and today the reputation of Belgian shotguns in the U.S. is probably the best it has ever been.

The New Model Melior .25 Caliber Pistol
by Ed Buffaloe

New Model Melior - Type I

According to Hogg and Weeks, in their book Pistols of the World, the Robar company began life as Robar & de Kerkhove, which manufactured low-cost pocket revolvers in the 1890’s. However, according to John Walter, in his Dictionary of Guns and Gunmakers, a company by the name of Manufacture Liégeoise d’Armes à Feu, Robar & Companie, S.A. already had a London office in the period 1882-1884. In any case, it was the latter company, known in short as Robar et Cie. that manufactured pistols under the name Melior. Their first auto pistol appeared in 1907 and was updated in 1911. After the appearance of the New Model around 1920 the older gun became known retroactively as the Old Model Melior.

The design of the New Model is derivative in many of its individual parts, though unique as a whole, and may be of interest to some as a brief chapter in the history of self-loading pistols. My friend Earl Mount has loaned me two guns from his collection which, judging by their serial numbers, are an early and a late version. I also have photographs of guns from the collection of another friend, Stefan Klein. There may be other versions which I have not examined. I have assigned type numbers to the various specimens I have catalogued, based on serial numbers, but I cannot be certain they are in the correct order. Indeed, Matthews, in his book Firearms Identification, Vol. I, indicates that it was the later version of the gun that lacks the grip safety, rather than the early version. But the gun I have examined with the lowest serial number is the one lacking the grip safety.

A larger version of the New Model Melior was also made in 7.65mm Browning and, according to Hogg and Weeks, after World War II a .22 caliber and .380 version were also manufactured. If you own a New Model Melior which is in any way distinct from those I describe here, I would greatly appreciate hearing from you.*

Type I New Model Melior

New Model - Type I - Breech Block

The first distinctive feature of the New Model Melior pistol is related to the fact that the breech block is a separate unit from the slide, and the joining of the two holds the slide on the frame. This separate breech block was copied from the Model 1900 FN Browning and was also replicated in the Old Model Melior. However, the Browning’s breech block is attached to the slide by two screws, and dismantling the gun requires removing these screws; whereas the New Model Melior’s breech block is held in the slide by a dovetailed transverse locking piece fixed to the slide by a spring-loaded lever which also serves as the rear sight. Dismantling the Melior simply requires one to lift the lever and push the locking piece out the side of the slide. To my knowledge, no other gun has this unusual take-down method. The breech block incorporates the firing pin, firing pin spring, cocking indicator, and extractor.

The second distinctive feature of the New Model Melior is a captive recoil spring. A bushing at the rear of the spring abuts a cut in the interior of the slide to hold the rear of the spring in place, while a screw-in bushing in the front of the slide retains the front of the spring. The rear bushing also serves to cover the recoil spring in the ejection port and so prevent dirt and grit from getting caught in it--this rear bushing is similar to that on the Walther Model 2, Model 3, Model 4, Model 5, and Model 7. The Melior shares the full slide and concentric recoil spring seen in these Walthers, but the front bushing on the Walther serves as its means of disassembly.

Type I - Lockwork

The unusual piston-shaped sear of the Melior, which moves in a cylinder in the frame, can be traced back to the Walther Model 1. The lockwork of the Melior is on the right side of the gun instead of the left, as on the Walther. There is an L-shaped sear lever, similar to the Walther’s, that pivots on a pin staked to the frame to lower the sear when the trigger is pulled. Like the Walther, the Melior uses a spring-loaded striker rather than a hammer. The connector bar on the Melior runs on the right side from the trigger to the sear lever. The disconnector projects upward at a right angle from the connector bar, as on many of the Spanish copies of the 1903 Browning.

The spring-loaded manual safety on the Melior is just behind and above the trigger on the left side of the gun. It appears to be identical in function to those on the Spanish copies of the 1903 Browning referred to above--it locks the trigger and prevents it from transmitting motion to the sear, but does not lock the sear itself. There is no grip safety and no magazine safety on the Type I.

Realvision enb night too dark. The left side of the slide has a two-line inscription, the first line being in serif characters and the second in sans-serif, as follows:

MELIOR
BREVETS-259178-265491-LIEGE-BELGIUM

I have attempted to locate the patents, but a search of the European Patent Office did not produce any results. The serial number is stamped on the right side of the frame above and slightly in front of the trigger, as well as on the right side of the slide behind the ejection port; it is also stamped on the breech block and many of the small parts of the gun. The serial number of the gun examined is 4694.

The usual Belgian proof marks are stamped on the left side of the frame just above the trigger, as well as on the front of the barrel and the top of the breech block. On the left side of the frame, just above the bow of the trigger guard is the caliber designation, 6.35 B^R, for 6.35mm Browning.

The grips are made of horn, checkered, with an annulus centered toward the top containing the words “Melior” and “Liege” surrounding an “RoC” Monogram in the center. The left grip has a screw at the top and one at the bottom, whereas the right grip has screws at the center rear and at the bottom.

The magazine is nickeled, unmarked, has a flat follower, and has 5 holes drilled through each side for viewing the cartridges.

The production quality on the gun examined here is not the highest. Faint milling marks are visible on the surface of the frame, and heavy marks are visible on the inside of the grip.

Type II New Model Melior

New Model Melior - Type II

I have been unable to examine a Type II in person, and unfortunately the photographs I have are not good enough to give a complete description of the gun. The two guns I have noted of this type are serial numbers 62983 and 89630. I’m referring to this gun as the Type II, but there could easily be other types or variants not described here. The most obvious difference between the Type I and Type II is that the Type II has a grip safety.

The captive recoil spring is retained, as is the transverse locking piece that links the breech block and the slide and holds the gun together. The breech block continues to be a separate piece which can be removed from the slide. The right side of the grip is not cut all the way to the top of the frame as in the Type I and Type III--hence the grip plates do not extend all the way to the bottom of the slide. I assume that the grips continue to be made of horn. They feature the word MELIOR in a curved oval at the top, beneath which is a TR (or possibly RT) monogram in a circle.

The connector or transfer bar that links the trigger to the sear runs on the right side of the gun. It has a transverse pin at its rear end which moves the sear and releases the striker. The disconnector rises up behind the sear, internally, on the right side of the frame--when the slide is out of battery the disconnector is pressed down and moves the connector bar down so it cannot engage the sear.

The left side of the slide has a two-line inscription which is identical to that on the Type I, the first line being in serif characters and the second in sans-serif, as follows:

Type II - Components

MELIOR
BREVETS-259178-265491-LIEGE-BELGIUM