Game & Gun Gazette

New Life for Lebeau-Courally

After conquering much of Europe’s fine-shotgun trade, the Belgians began waffling. Unable to decide whether to compete with “best” London or mid-priced Birmingham guns, the Liège trade began a slow decline in the years following World War II.

The last firm standing was Auguste Lebeau-Courally, and even it stood on shaky pins. Today no one would write, as Vic Venters did just a decade ago, that “the company arguably remains Continental Europe’s finest maker . . . ” (“The Guns of Lebeau-Courally,” July/August ’98). For reasons that could fill a book, the best Continental makers today are concentrated in northern Italy. Belgium’s decline—in gunmaking as in other industries—can be laid partially at the door of poor marketing. Innovators and craftsmen are not always the best salesmen.

Lebeau would languish still were it not for Cornelis ’t Mannetje and Ludovic Colmé, who took over the firm in November 2007. Graduates of the Liège and Ferlach gunmaking schools, respectively, both grew up with Continental Europe’s hunting traditions as a way of life. They are the latest in the long line of owners who have led daily shop-floor operations from the firm’s beginning, assuming that role from Madame Anne-Marie Moermans. Madame Moermans took the helm upon the death of her uncle, Joseph Verrees, in 1982, and remains active in the company as a consultant and is at the factory every day.

The young gunmakers’ goal, as they present it, is “to preserve and continue with the tradition of Auguste Lebeau-Courally, and to us this means building luxury firearms entirely by hand.”

I asked Cornelis if this was a good time, given the current global economy, to be reinvigorating a once-famous name. “The US dollar versus the Euro is a fact of life,” he said. “This hurts our export business toward the US, but the Russian market is in full expansion. The Russian market demands a different approach in style; they do not follow the same trends as we experience worldwide, for example in caliber choice. The engraving themes they like are more oriented toward the Teutonic style. The only constant in business is change. Those who adapt and stay mostly do well; those who do not…”

The firm was founded by Auguste Lebeau in 1865, and he was joined by French national Ferdinand Courally in 1910. Moscow long has been enamored of Lebeau guns: Czar Nicholas II shot with a pair, and the firm enjoyed a relationship with Kaliver, the city’s major gunshop. Lebeau recognized and honored the Russian market by naming one model the Grande Russe and others after Russian princes: the Prince Koudacheff, the Prince Gortchakoff and the Prince Kourakine. Lebeau-Courally currently offers five models of rifles and shotguns, including an Anson & Deeley boxlock, a Holland & Holland-style sidelock, a Continental-style over/under and the firm’s signature Boss/Verrees (now Super-Baron) over/unders. The only model the new owners intend to introduce is a bolt-action rifle.

I asked Cornelis about the famed Lebeau line of O/Us: “Please remember that Auguste Lebeau-Courally was one of the rare companies to build under official license the original Boss sidelock ejector over/under, after Mr. Robertson’s patents, by hand outside of the Boss factory” Cornelis said. “Over the years Lebeau has been building a variety of over/unders, but the most sought after is the Super-Baron—named after the two brothers whose family name is Baron, one of them a professor of the Liège gunmaking school, the other a very talented and skilled actioner. These two brothers are responsible for the design and construction of the over/under sidelock ejector as it is now built by Lebeau. This gun is in both design and construction a far cry from the original Boss-patent over/under.”

Until recently, Lebeau-Courally assembled the BSL sidelock ejector for the Browning Custom Shop and also took in about 400 jobs each year for best-gun repairwork from shops throughout Europe. “Our current production volume is about 25 guns per calendar year, all models together,” Cornelis said. “When we took over the company, one of our decisions was to stop working for third parties. This helps us concentrate on our own product.”

Belgium’s skilled gunmaking workforce has been much reduced since World War II, but Cornelis said more recent changes have made skilled workers more accessible. “The complete team consists of 17 full-time people and two full-time engravers,” he said. “Besides occasional specifically requested engraving, case hardening and barrel blacking, we do not employ people outside our factory. And although it is a paradox, the new Belgian firearms law that is much more strict helps us. In Liège there has always been a strong tradition of gunmakers working for themselves independently at home. With this new law, all work on guns or even parts of guns has become impossible without a license and draconian security measures. This has led to many qualified gunmakers giving up their stature as independents, and they have become interested in joining a sound and structured factory. Of course we also still train and apprentice new and young people in our factory.”

For more information, contact Lebeau-Courally, 01132-42-52-0-211; www.lebeau-courally.com. Lebeau-Courally is represented in the US by Griffin & Howe and William Larkin Moore. —Douglas Tate

Booking Driven Days Online

There is a chap in East Anglia who is altering the landscape of shooting in Great Britain. His name is James Horne, and his brainchild is the Internet-based business Guns- OnPegs (www.gunsonpegs.com).

The germ of the idea emerged on a shooting day with a group of investors in the ubiquitous Internet auction site eBay. Horne’s budding enterprise became a user-friendly, Web-based marketplace matching Guns and estates, changing the century-old norms for arranging a day’s shooting in Britain. The new Website blossomed, attracting the participation of more than 130 estates and the sponsorship of Holland & Holland.

When the sport originated, driven shooting was an exclusive, invitation-only affair. Changes in the economics of the countryside resulted in let days available to men of uncommon means but common birth. Shooting syndicates were born, allowing mere mortals access to hallowed ground, and soon commercial shoots offered driven sport to anyone who could afford it.

Still, most estates would entertain only full teams of Guns, and shooting days often would go unsold. Assembling a driven-shooting party is no simple task, given the considerable expense and the difficulty of coordinating the schedules of eight or nine Guns. The single Gun or small party has long been left out, but GunsOnPegs has changed the business of shooting. For shooting in the UK is a business, pumping an estimated £1.6 billion into the countryside while providing jobs and preserving traditions.

How the site works is simple. After completing the free registration, the prospective Gun can search available sport by date, cost, location or quarry at the “Find Pegs or Days” page.

Let’s say you and two friends want to shoot pheasants in December in Yorkshire. Enter the particulars and click “Update.” Chances are the search will result in an estate with an available opening that would like your business. Select an estate, and GunsOnPegs provides a description of the shoot, complete with photos of the grounds, the number of pegs available, the expected bag, the cost, and e-mail and Website links to the estate.

Many estates participating on Horne’s site sell pegs to single Guns or small parties, providing a unique opportunity for American shooters to join teams of English Guns and experience an authentic driven shooting day.

For those with a team of Guns at the ready, GunsOnPegs affords a registered user the ability to peruse a wide variety of shoots, contact estates and understand the marketplace of shooting.

For the roving syndicate, GunsOnPegs provides a ready picture of shoot availability with an interactive Google map interface that easily toggles between map, satellite and hybrid views. Variety is the spice of shooting. If it is pheasant shooting in Devon one month, why not driven partridge in Hampshire the next?

Other features include a “Members Trading Post,” where members can place classified ads or view listings of items relevant to shooting; a blog; a news page and a diary.

The launch of GunsOnPegs is a marvelous example of 21st Century technology complementing and helping preserve 19th Century tradition, filling valuable pegs and days for struggling estates and opening the private world of privilege to every shooter with a gun, a computer and a checkbook. Whether you are planning in earnest an upcoming trip or just indulging in a little innocent daydreaming, GunsOnPegs is worth a look. —Steven Clay Groh

A Timeless Design from the Austrian Alps

Austrian gunmaker Philipp Ollendorff has added yet another shotgun to his distinctive line of custom-made arms: a sidelever over/under. This is his first gun in superposed configuration and a departure from his favorite form: the bar-in-wood side-by-side. But although the new gun is distinct in barrel orientation, Ollendorff has stayed with his favorite method for manipulating the bolt: a graceful sidelever.

Ollendorff is one of the few gunmakers to produce sidelevers, and he also offers configurations, such as single-shot hammer Kiplauf rifles, that aren’t in the repertoires of most high-end makers. He won’t hesitate to work closely with a client to make a special commission that others don’t offer. One recent example was a bar-in-wood 12-bore competition gun with 30" barrels. It was made completely to the owner’s specifications and has performed admirably on the clays range.

This newest Ollendorff gun is a 6-1/2-pound 20-gauge with 28" tubes. It is fitted with coil-spring ejectors in the forend and Holland-type pinless locks (pinned also are available) to showcase whatever engraving is chosen. Chokes have been left Full for the owner to customize, and the stock dimensions are somewhat changeable as well. With beautifully figured Turkish walnut, this gun looks racy even without engraving. A full, nicely rounded forend terminates in front with a clean Purdey button-type latch to keep up appearances. The barrel-mounted Boss-style short rib makes great sense on a gun balanced for fast handling. Ollendorff plans to offer his O/U in gauges from 28 to 12, with frames of commensurate size and whatever barrel lengths are desired. (Prices available on request.)

Lucky visitors to the Safari Club International convention in Reno (January 21 to 24) will be able to judge for themselves whether Ollendorff’s efforts have been worthwhile.

For more information, contact Philipp Ollendorff, 01143-5213-20133; www.jagdwaffen-ollendorff.com. —Clair Kofoed

Hiberno-Saxon Art

The Gaelic origins of the surname Tate are “pleasure” or “delight,’ and most members of the Tate tribe are concentrated in Northeast England. The Northeast is a region acknowledged for its connections to the type of Celtic art known as Hiberno-Saxon, of which the best example is undoubtedly the Lindisfarne Gospels. It’s not surprising then that Northeast native Dale Tate has created a shotgun with engraving in the style of these illuminated manuscripts.

Using a round-bodied AyA No. 1 as the basic canvas, Tate asked fellow Englishman Charles Lee to engrave the gun. Both men trained with Purdey’s before moving to the US, and Lee has engraved guns for several members of the British royal family as well as other royal households in Europe and the Middle East. Lee has performed commissions for many of the most respected names in the British gun trade, including Holland & Holland, Churchill, McKay Brown, Watson Bros. and Greener.

I asked the chap who commissioned the gun about his choices, and he wrote back with the following reply:

“I first met Dale Tate—endorsed by a friend as the only credible gunfitter in Northern California—when I was seeking a gunfitting several years ago. The bonus was discovering that Dale was also a gunsmith of notable pedigree and a raconteur, to boot. No visit to Dale’s smoke-blackened bench, forested with Byzantine tools and interspersed with an occasional oil rag, would have been complete without a glibly guided detour of his gunroom. There, in the modest setting of a comfortably converted mobile building, Tate produced one of his early guns: a 12-bore sidelock that he built on an AyA action and finished in classic London fashion. The fine traditional scroll engraving had been executed by Charles Lee, a name recognized in your British Gun Engraving but who was reported as ‘current whereabouts unknown.’ Dale promptly solved this mystery with a 15-pace stride to the other end of the building, and there I was introduced to Charles Lee.

“This confluence of discoveries set in motion my contemplations for a custom upland gun to pursue pheasants, grouse and Huns across the swales of the Little Bighorn country of Eastern Montana. The gun specifications were easily arrived at, and as I researched engraving styles I was repeatedly drawn to an image of a vintage, Celtic-patterned Alex Martin sidelock, once again found in British Gun Engraving. That image formed the basis of the Celtic design that today adorns the gun.”

After it was engraved, the gun was color case hardened by Doug Turnbull, who then used a series of wire burnishing brushes to remove the colors from the highlighted strapwork. Although I know of no direct relationship between Dale Tate and me, I’m certain we were kinsmen in a distant Celtic past. Looking at the gun pictured here and contemplating the modest role that my book British Gun Engraving played in its creation, I feel both “pleasure” and “delight.”

For more information on Dale Tate guns, contact Anglo American Sporting Agency, 949-644-9557; www.angloamericansport.com.  —Douglas Tate 

Lynton McKenzie: Engraving Techniques and Smoke Prints

A  complete library of fine-firearms books  must include the recently published monograph Lynton McKenzie: Engraving Techniques and Smoke Prints.

Born in Australia in 1940, McKenzie became a skilled gunsmith by the age of 16, after an early fascination with muzzleloading rifles and shotguns. He apprenticed as a photo engraver with a newspaper, then applied those skills in teaching himself gun engraving. McKenzie worked in London for many of the “best” gunmakers, including Purdey, Holland & Holland and Westley Richards, before moving to the US in 1970 when he joined New Orleans Arms.

McKenzie became one of the world’s best-known engravers, working almost exclusively on commissions from top fine-gun collectors, and his highly regarded “McKenzie Scroll” is much emulated today. He was an extraordinarily gifted and giving man who freely spent many hours talking with and encouraging younger artisans, including the book’s publisher—engraver Steve Lindsay—and me. McKenzie had a broader knowledge of artisanal gunmaking than any man I have ever known.

This book is a compilation of short how-to stories by McKenzie and engraving smoke prints illustrating a large cross-section of his work. It covers both his early and late work in no particular order and shows how his unique scroll style evolved over time into the distinctive work for which he is known. It is McKenzie’s own historical record of his work, as compiled by his widow, Pam, Lindsay and engraver Don Patch. Smoke prints are the best way to study engraving, as they are taken directly from the engraved metal. These prints are enlarged 1-1/2 times in the book to aid in the study of the engraving cuts.

The book consists of 53 spiral-bound pages with black & white illustrations on high-quality paper. The first section offers McKenzie’s written engraving tutorials and graver-sharpening techniques along with photos of McKenzie and his friends, engraved firearms, engraving tools and the craftsman’s workbench. The remaining 33 pages contain smoke prints.

The book costs $110 plus $7 shipping ($20 shipping outside the US) and is available from Lindsay Engraving and Tools, Inc., 308-236-7885; www.Air Graver.com. —Steven Dodd Hughes 

Bugden’s Weighted Handguards

Competition shooters have long had screw-in or snap-on gadgets to add weight to their semi-autos and over/unders to help change the point of balance, especially to add weight out front to smooth swings for more consistent follow-throughs.

For side-by-side owners, however, adding barrel weight has been more problematic, often involving restocking or the re-weighting of existing stocks—neither inexpensive nor easy propositions. Some have suggested taping lead to the undersides of side-by-side barrels, but this is hardly appealing from an aesthetic standpoint.

Casemaker and leather craftsman John W. Bugden of Murray, Kentucky, has come up with a better way. Bugden is a fixture at side-by-side shoots around the country, and several years ago I asked him if there were any way he could weight his traditional English-style leather-covered handguards to help those of us with light, fast-handling side-by-sides increase our guns’ inertia when used for clay busting. The quick dynamics that make light side-bys a delight in the uplands can make them frustrating to use for shooting clays.

Bugden scratched his head and came back several months later with a handguard employing several sheets of galvanized steel inside rather than the one sheet normally used for the frame. This added maybe another ounce but produced nothing dramatic in terms of changing a gun’s handling dynamics.

Last fall Bugden unveiled a much-improved version: a traditional guard in every way except that it is weighted with thin sheets of lead between the interior steel frame and the leather sewn around it. The weighted portion nestles in the palm of the hand and is otherwise unobtrusive. Bugden can custom-weight each handguard depending on client wishes and the gauge of the gun. A 12-gauge guard can be weighted up to 10 oz, a 16- or 20-gauge up to 8 oz, a 28-gauge up to 6 oz, and a .410 up to 3 oz.

Bugden’s weighted guards certainly help keep a gun moving once you get it swinging, and at day’s end it slips off with no alterations to the gun. Guard coverings are made from vegetable-tanned leather to prevent rusting and are available in black or various shades of brown. Standard guards are $42; weighted versions are $55.

For more information, contact John Bugden, 270-753-0305; Johnwbugden@bellsouth.net.  —Vic Venters

Roosevelt’s Biggest Stick

Theodore Roosevelt once said of the Fox shotgun that he took to Africa, “No better gun was ever made.” And he should know, because he was likely the greatest gun connoisseur ever to occupy the White House.

Take, for example, this passage from Hunting Trips of a Ranchman: “I have two double-barreled shotguns: a No. 10 chokebore for ducks and geese made by Thomas of Chicago; and a No. 16 hammerless built for me by Kennedy of St. Paul, for grouse and plover. On regular hunting trips I always carry the Winchester rifle, but in riding round near home, where a man may see a deer and is sure to come across ducks and grouse, it is best to take the little ranch gun, a double-barrel No. 16, with a .40-70 rifle underneath the shotgun barrels.”

In 1909, when Roosevelt needed a large double rifle for his African safari following eight years as President, there was perhaps only one choice. Holland & Holland had the experience of building so-called elephant guns, but perhaps more significantly the company had a long tradition of building presentation guns to the highest standard. When the “.500/.450 bore Royal Hammerless non-ejector Cordite Double Rifle” eventually was delivered—a gift from some of Roosevelt’s British friends—he said of it: “I do not believe there exists a better weapon for heavy game.” When the rifle came to auction in San Francisco in 1994, it fetched an unprecedented $550,000.

To celebrate the centenary of Roose-velt’s African safari, Holland & Holland has built a commemorative double in the style of the original presentation rifle. Intended as an extension of Holland’s African Hunter series, which in the past has seen doubles dedicated to Karamojo Bell, Pondoro Taylor and Frederic Courtney Selous, the new rifle will, like its predecessor, be in .500/.450 3-1/4".

Roosevelt’s rifle was covered in discreet open scroll, but the new rifle will feature realistic images of T.R. engraved by Welsh wizard Phil Coggan. The right lockplate has Roosevelt shooting American bison in North Dakota; on the left he poses with his H&H double next to an elephant. A grizzly is portrayed on the strap, and the grip cap features a bear paw. Holland & Holland will unveil the new rifle this January at the Safari Club International Convention, in Reno, where one of the heavy hitters in attendance may snap up the latest in this famous series.   —Douglas Tate