Centaure 8900 uncovered

[mykeal]

PUrchased Centaure s/n 8900 at auction this weekend.

I am in the process of filling out the FROCS questionnaire.

The gun was quite dirty, but very, very little corrosion, thankfully. The bore is pristine. One nipple was stuck and is currently soaking.

I've completely disassembled, cleaned, oiled and reassembled the gun. However, the timing is out of whack at the moment. The bolt is rough and sticks in the channel, and the bolt spring is unable to overcome the friction the majority of the time. Same thing is true of the hand/hand spring assembly; rough surfaces on both the frame and the hand itself.

I am overall very pleased with the gun itself, but disappointed with the condition of the action parts. I had understood these guns were of high quality, but the evidence at hand says the actions are little different from the Italian clones.

I was quite surprised at the rifling - it's very, very shallow and I'm having a difficult time getting a good enough slug to measure the land/groove depth.

I'll get some pictures as soon as I finish polishing the action parts and get it put back together.

 

[Ratdog68]

Didja....

take some "before" pix so we can appreciate the work you're putin' into it?

 

[mykeal]

No before pics taken - all that matters is the end result.

 

[Tommygunn]

Pardon my ignorance, but what is a Centaure 8900?

 

[arcticap]

It's a Belgian Colt.

http://www.1960nma.org/


Congratulations on the auction win mykeal.
It couldn't have found a better home or more capable hands than yours.

 

[reverendfranz]

Very nice, and congratulations. I purchased 4123 last thursday, it was pretty dirty and needed a little cleaning up, but nothing terrible, and looks to be in pretty good shape, i filled out the questionaire, but havent sent it in as i wanted to take a picture or two to send it in with.