Any experience with the French Manu arms .410 bolt gun?

[TheBlindHarper]

I've got one available which I'm possibly thinking about purchasing; only trouble is I can't find a single write-up regarding their quality!

If you've used one or own one, fancy letting me know how they fair?

 

Thank you

[lancer425]

Cheap and cheerful sold by sportsmarketing , back in the day "they sold baikals e rizini and Vostock back then" .

  Reliable my cousain had a 9mm flobert garden gun, like the .410 they sold but 9mm .  It will be full choke and it is simple and basic.  not saying it cant wont give issues but not much simpler, and i am guessing you will be bored of using it before it is bored of functioning as a gun. 

[enfieldspares]

French guns and I've owned a few be it shotguns, rifles and, yes, even pistols are either genius or awfuls that threw any ideas ergonomics and commonsense out of the design process before the first blueprints were even printed.

Genius is such as the Manufrance Fusil Robust of which I still have two one in 12 Bore and one in 16 Bore, the MAB P-15 9mm pistol of which I had one back in the 1980s, The Unique X-51bis self-loading .22LR of which I also had one.

Awful are such as the Model 1892 Revolver, the Berthier 8mm Rifle (only the French could send soldiers off to fight WW1 with a rifle that had a three shot magazine capacity. the Chauchaut Machine Gun (only the French could send soldiers off to fight WW1 with a machine gun that used a bottomm mounted open sided magazine) and other abominations. 

The Manuarms will be cheap, effective, made for a customer base of rural peasants and farmers that wanted a reliable item without issues and to that market price point with beech wood from an old school desk and finest (ha, ha) chemical blacking so frankly I wouldn't have one of it where given to me. Buy the Norica.

Edited February 23, 2020 by enfieldspares

[TheBlindHarper]

49 minutes ago, enfieldspares said:

French guns and I've owned a few be it shotguns, rifles and, yes, even pistols are either genius or awfuls that threw any ideas ergonomics and commonsense out of the design process before the first blueprints were even printed.

Genius is such as the Manufrance Fusil Robust of which I still have two one in 12 Bore and one in 16 Bore, the MAB P-15 9mm pistol of which I had one back in the 1980s, The Unique X-51bis self-loading .22LR of which I also had one.

Awful are such as the Model 1892 Revolver, the Berthier 8mm Rifle (only the French could send soldiers off to fight WW1 with a rifle that had a three shot magazine capacity. the Chauchaut Machine Gun (only the French could send soldiers off to fight WW1 with a machine gun that used a bottomm mounted open sided magazine) and other abominations. 

The Manuarms will be cheap, effective, made for a customer base of rural peasants and farmers that wanted a reliable item without issues and to that market price point with beech wood from an old school desk and finest (ha, ha) chemical blacking so frankly I wouldn't have one of it where given to me. Buy the Norica.

Don't forget the lovely Lebel, with its oh-so-modern tube magazine! A beautiful rifle nonetheless.

Okay, I think I'll go for the Norica. I've got an option for a half-choke or a three-quarters. For rabbits and pigeons up to 30 / 35 yards (Granted that it patterns well enough when I run it over some boards) would you say go for the half or 3/4?

 

4 hours ago, lancer425 said:

Cheap and cheerful sold by sportsmarketing , back in the day "they sold baikals e rizini and Vostock back then" .

  Reliable my cousain had a 9mm flobert garden gun, like the .410 they sold but 9mm .  It will be full choke and it is simple and basic.  not saying it cant wont give issues but not much simpler, and i am guessing you will be bored of using it before it is bored of functioning as a gun. 

I think I'm leaning towards the Norica now, thank you.

[enfieldspares]

Take the half choke. Shooting is like billiards. It is scoring with the easy shots that makes up the bag. The twenty to twenty five yard "easy" shots.

It is these "up to" shots, the "easy" ones that I'd want to be certain of with that slighly better distributed pattern that a half choke will give. The thirty-five yard shots will look after themselves. Three quarter choke is all well and good but in reality as the .410 has a long shot column a tighter choke will deform more pellets than a more open choke and so at the edges will be the poorer pattern.

Best of all, really, would be if you could pattern both guns at say twenty, twenty-five and thirty-five yards. The "eye opener" will be the twenty yard pattern and that will probably show that the tighter choke is less practical at the majority of ranges you'll be taking shots. Especially on pigeon coming in to a decoy pattern.

But of course some guns pattern better than other guns seemingly without regard for the actual nominal choke. A friend's Purdey was nominally true cylinder in the right barrel. Patterned at forty yards and the pattern were as if someone had drawn it with a set of dividers like the top of a pepperpot. It was a fantastic almost picturebook example of the sought after "well distributed pattern" that Gough Thomas wrote of.

If you can pattern the guns with your intended 3" cartridge loaded with #6 or #7 shot. Or better if you can get them #6 1/2. 

Edited February 23, 2020 by enfieldspares

[Wingman]

I'll be honest I bought one for my son and it was pretty awful. The bolt jammed regularly and it patterned terribly.  Sold it for 20 quid and bought a Webley bolt 410 which was way better. 

Edited February 23, 2020 by Wingman

[stumfelter]

I've got a manuarm .410 and to be honest I generally use it like a rifle against squirrels, rats etc for which it is perfect when fitted with a sling as a walkabout, would I use it  decoying? Not a chance!