By profession and for a long time, I have followed the rear-loading gun, and I myself have introduced some improvements. However, the desired results were far from being achieved until 1832 when the hinge-action gun, known as Lefaucheux, appeared. I was then one of the first to negotiate with the inventor the right to manufacture this weapon, because, in addition to the advantages that the rear-loading gun brings with it, it combined a simplicity of mechanism and a solidity that no one could hesitate to recognize. Since then, I have manufactured these guns, and having placed them on the market, I have been encouraged more and more by the most satisfying results. Therefore, I declare that I deliver guns of this system with more guarantee, I dare say, than the piston guns, since they cannot give rise to false charges, nor to the ignition of the powder, nor to all the inconveniences that result from loading stick guns, and they have over these advantages that are needless to enumerate.
Delebourse,
Gunsmith, in Paris.
