old rifle

J

jamieo

Inactive
hi great site i am in australia and have just inherited an old 22 rifle and am find it hard to get some info on it. it has RICHARD BURTON & Co liege on the top and the only number i can find is 36 stamped on a few parts, it has a carved stock and is in real good nick .

any help would be good

thanks jamie
 
We'd probably need more information, and probably pictures of this rifle; the markings suggest that this is a Belgian-made rifle (Liege is in Belgium), and that it would have been imported to Australia by Richard Burton & Co. What action type is it (bolt-action, bolt-action single-shot, falling-block, Martini, etc.)?
 
thanks will get some pics it has a hexagon barrel and u lift up the bit near the hammer and a block slides out for the bullet. the hammer is of to one side.
 
It sounds like a Warnant-action rifle, and is likely not safe to fire with modern ammunition; most of these were chambered for the 6mm Flobert cartridge, which is close to modern 22s in size, but a lot weaker. Does your rifle look like this?

OldRifle002.jpg
 
Whoa, that does not look like a very strong breach action at all. Wonder if it could stand up to .22 shorts pressures if sound, then it might be relined with a .22 barrel liner and chambered for .22 shorts in standard or target velocity only. Then it would be a great deal of fun for short range, 50 meters max shooting. Then again if it is like some of the well worn examples of those Belgians or Europeans of similiar design, it might be best used as a display on the wall?
 
yeah it very very similar the breach and hammer are a little different but the stock is the same. do u know some history on the rifle?


thanks alot for your help.
 
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From what I gather, in the 19th and early 20th century Belgium was similiar to Spain, they had alot of makers creating large numbers of inexpensive firearms for export around the world. Many shotguns and guns like yours were imported here, with local trade names of retailers stamped on them. Very little historical information except that you can tell their origin thru the Belgian proofs. They even made large quatities of muzzleloading guns quite late, for export to primitive countries. Many of them are interesting in appearance but due to their economy status and a lack of very much information published they do not command very much collector interest here. Eventually there must have been a shakeout and the major makers like FN in Belgium established a good reputation thru military and commercial sales of high quality arms so they sort of overshadowed the unrecognised makers. You may glean more information at some point but it will probably be difficult to find.
 
The Warnant design is fairly strong, though I don't recommend using any modern ammo in them except maybe BB/CB caps. The Warnant was an improvement on the Flobert action, which looks similar but had NO breechblock, depending on the mass of the hammer to keep the breech closed on firing. Firing one of those with modern ammo will result in the cartridge case blowing straight back out of the chamber, not a very good idea if one's head is in the way.

Jim
 
I'll wager it is perhaps 100 years old but could vary either way, I would think more likely older than after 1910. Then again the archaic late 19th century styling or design might be fooling me.
 
I think I have the same ....

I think I have one very much like yours.
 

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