Parlor rifle?

M

M1A1gunner

Inactive
When my grandfather passed on, he left me some very intresting pieces, and one that makes me really curious. A man at a local gun show, saw it and told me it was called a (Flobert,Flowbert,Flowburt) how ever it is spelled. I remember my grandfather telling me it was a french parlor rifle, and he bought in Paris during the war. It has a semi circular bibbed barrel, fancy trigger guard and some kind of metal casting fastened to the stock.

Does this ring a bell to anyone?
 
The Flobert was the original rimfire cartridge firearm. Very simple and cheap to build, they hung on for many years in Europe. A parlor rifle was a low powered rifle, often on the simple Flobert action, used for indoor target shooting in the days before air rifles were refined enough for it.
 
As an interessting side note, Flobert made very high quality air rifles after the late 1800s/early 1900s in calibers up to 9mm. In many languages in Europe today, air rifles are still called "Floberts".
 
I haven't seen a Flobert air rifle.
I know that some places, all .22s are called Floberts, just as all automatic pistols are called Brownings.
 
I would realy like to try to find out what caliber it is, and alos if I can still find rounds to fire in it. I would love to be able to tell my grandkids one day that I shot this rifle .
 
The standard load for a plain Flobert was a BB or CB cap. They made them in both .22 and 6mm rimfire. If a .22 is sloppy in the chamber, it is probably a 6mm, the which I have no idea of where to buy ammo. Not for standard ammo, they are not very strong.
 
1 picture, 1000 words.

Flobert gun were made by many, many smaller and larger companies in Belgium, France, Germany and Spain. Quality ranged from superb to hardly useable. (With the majority tending to the lower end). One thing was equal for all: very limited power. Flobert shot can only be used in backyard small pestcontrol. Ball ammo will not penetrate a thick coat.
Flobert ammo is again available from France I think, but anybody in his right mind would not consider using such a gun other than as a conversation-piece. Enjoy it over the fireplace.
 
Look for the tell tale "ELG" in oval stamp, denotes Liege proofhouse.
Big majority of floberts came that way.
 
flobert ammo

I have a few rounds of the 6mm ammo left over from a flobert rifle that I owned years ago. I had a pistol version as well (salon or parlor gun) that the man I purchased it from assured me was safe to shoot indoors, in fact, he said "you can shoot yourself in the head with this one and it wont hurt".
My workshop was made of cement block walls and I had an old dart board in there so I thought what the heck. I shot the board from about 25ft. away and the shot bounced off three of the walls before it stopped. Glad I didnt try his second suggestion.
 
The original Flobert cartridge had no powder; its only power came from the primer like the later BB cap. The 6mm Flobert was rimfire, unlike the even smaller 4mm German cartridge, which was, incredibly, center fire. It had an inside primer and looks like a rimfire, but is not.

Needless to say, remember Sagetown's story and treat any and all guns as dangerous, no matter what anyone says.

Jim
 
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