Description
Cased Pinfire Rifle by Le Lyon à Paris
Cased Pinfire Rifle by Le Lyon à Paris. A superb and unusual cased pinfire rifle with shotgun barrels by Le Lyon. I can find no records of Le Lyon but this set is made to the highest standard.
The pinfire was invented by Frenchman Casimir Lefaucheux in the 1830s but not patented until 1835, it was one of the earliest practical designs of a metallic cartridge. The barrels are dated 1834 but included within the set are two sets of spare hammers numbered 2 and 3. One set of hammers is for pinfire whilst the other set is for percussion. One can only assume that Le Lyon could foresee the conversion to percussion and included spare hammers for this reason.
The gun is in excellent original condition and is cased with the original accessories. The 24 bore shotgun barrels are 31 1/2″ long with excellent bores and are dated 1834 with the serial number 2303. The rifled barrels, again with excellent bores, are also dated 1834 with the serial number 2302. There is no visible serial number on the gun itself.
A pinfire cartridge is an obsolete type of metallic firearm cartridge in which the priming compound is ignited by striking a small pin which protrudes radially from just above the base of the cartridge. Invented by Frenchman Casimir Lefaucheux in the 1830s but not patented until 1835, it was one of the earliest practical designs of a metallic cartridge. Its history is closely associated with the development of the breechloader which replaced muzzle-loading.
