Any Info on this Double Rifle manufacturer - Raick Freres” and “Liege, Belgium”

[Nembwe]

Good day all DR legends.
does anyone on AH have any experience and or know of this DR manufacture Raick Freres” and “Liege, Belgium”. I realise it is a old company but was wanting some additional information. Such as are they still around what quality did they produce etc etc.
thanks all

 

[thi9elsp]

http://littlegun.be/arme belge/artisans identifies q r/a raick gb.htm

I found those two links on a quick google search for Raick Freres

 

[Nembwe]

Thank you Sir.
yes I also found those sites. Mainly known for the shotguns and not to many rifles. The one I am looking at is a 6.5mm double.
thanks again
N

 

[rookhawk]

Belgian guild gun maker. Not well known. The various stamps on the guns may show other workers or makers. A lot of the guns of Belgium were made by Bury & Masquellier, Auguste Francotte, and other bigger firms and then retailed or final-finished by smaller names.

You always buy the gun at face value, never the name on the rib!

 

[Nembwe]

Thanks Rookhawk.
much app.it looks to be in good shape and will get a hands on soon to see it in the flesh.
any idea as to a value n $ Sir.
N

 

[VertigoBE]

I sometimes see these in gunshops around here, they do not command a premium like the better known makers. But they do not seem to be badly built.

Would you care to share some pictures?

I did find this rifle on a past auction:

 

[Nembwe]

some pictures Rookhawk

 

[Nembwe]

I can access that link you mentioned. I will keep trying.
there doesn’t seem to be many 6mm doubles made, well not many these days anyway.
7mm seems to be the smallest doubles around??
thanks again
N

 

[Rubberhead]

That's very interesting. I may not fully understand it but the protruding firing pins would worry me a little.

 

[VertigoBE]

Looks to be used a lot, but well maintained, a good gunsmith could clean the metal up nicely.

How is the lockup? Anything rattling, like the fore end?

 

[Nembwe]

Not sure about the lockup Vertigo I should handle the rifle this coming week and give it a through feel and testing.
will let all know with some feed back.
Would one be safe to say mid 1940-1950?? By the engraving etc??
it shoots modern powder and projectiles to 1,5-1,8” grouping with hornady 129g to be confirmed.
thanks gents

 

[VertigoBE]

Not sure about the lockup Vertigo I should handle the rifle this coming week and give it a through feel and testing.
will let all know with some feed back.
Would one be safe to say mid 1940-1950?? By the engraving etc??
it shoots modern powder and projectiles to 1,5-1,8” grouping with hornady 129g to be confirmed.
thanks gents

Im definitely no expert, so I’d love to hear from other AH members’ opinions, but judging from the two proof marks in the picture I would put it more from ‘59 till ‘68

 

[rookhawk]

It looks nearly identical to a double rifle I owned from Liege that was made by their best, Jules Bury and Masquellier.

I don't know the caliber (did I miss that?) but mine was a higher grade than yours as far as condition and I sold it for somewhere around $3800-$4500. It was a 350 Griffin & Howe double rifle. (necked down 375) It had a lower price due to the permanency of a mediocre scope mount arrangement.

 

[Nembwe]

Rookhawk
it is a 6.5x53r - Close to .264mm hope this helps.
thanks again to all for the wisdom shared.
N

 

[Sarg]

I was going to say is it a 6.5X53R as I knew of one in the NT, does it weight around 8lbs & this one was from 1930-50, are you in Australia ?

I would think it would use the 160gr slug as most of the 6.5X53R bolt guns use that weight, it is what I use in all mine & the same load in my 6.5X54 Manny .

 

[rookhawk]

Rookhawk
it is a 6.5x53r - Close to .264mm hope this helps.
thanks again to all for the wisdom shared.
N

@Nembwe I know literally nothing of that caliber. Not a know-it-all, but surprised there is a metric double rifle caliber I hadn’t heard about before.

I would encourage you to look very carefully at the proof marks to make 100% sure this was the original caliber of the gun. The start and end of my knowledge on smallbore metric double rifles is a lot of fine doubles were ruined because they couldn’t get factory Kynoch ammo in the 1970s so they rechambered them to all types of bastard cartridges.

A fellow I know has a H&H Royal Deluxe that was a 240 Apex Flanged when original. Probably about a $45000-$55,000 rifle. It was rechambered to some goofy 6.5x something in the early 1990s. He tried to sell it twice at well advertised auctions and got no bids over $8000 and he had a $14,000 reserve.

Back to your original question, what’s the gun worth. If that’s the original caliber and you can get brass to make a regulating load for it, I’m thinking the gun is in that $4500-$6500 price range as a Belgian gun from an obscure retailer/maker based upon current condition. I’d want to look carefully at the rib and any scope mounting options carefully because such a gun should probably be scoped on some occasions. I couldn’t tell from the photos what the capacity is for optics at present.

 

[rookhawk]

Postscript. The caliber. It is likely original after all, I didn’t know the metric nomenclature but I looked it up, us Anglo-oriented people know it as .256 Mannlicher. It’s a fine round, although brass can be hard to find these days. (Not to be confused with 6.5 Mannlicher Schoenauer)

 

[alby]

One for sale in Australia at present
https://usedguns.com.au/search-resu...unsConditions&gunsStates&keyword=Raick Freres

 

[Nembwe]

@Sarg yes Sir in Perth. Owner says he shoots 2” with the 129g ???

@alby yip thats the one I am going to look at next week.

@rookhawk Sir you are a wealth of knowledge and this site is priveluged to have you
Many thanks for your contributions.

 

[rookhawk]

@Nembwe its priced at $4600 USD when I converted currencies. Not a crazy sum for a Belgian smallbore. The gun could be cleaned up a bit post-purchase, just a conservation rather than restoration.

The gun would look very good with a 1” tube zeiss 1.5-4.5x scope on it. (The best lightweight 1” tube ever Made for a smallbore double) Safarikidd has one for sale in the classifieds you’d be wise to purchase if you get the rifle. Because its a small bore, you probably could have the rib milled for simple scope rings with levers for a nominal cost that would hold up just fine.

As to date of manufacture, I can’t see a letter code to indicate the year of manufacture. If I had to guess, 1920-1940 with a most likely date in the 1930s is my hunch. I could be wrong, but that’s my hunch. The inspector’s mark of N with a star over it on the action flats is of Couchant Louis from 1923 to 1952. The date code will be on the barrels that would refine that date further to a specific year.

Regarding loads, above it was said its shooting 1.8” groups with 129gr loads. If that’s true, it may shoot phenomenally accurate when fed the correct diet. 256 Mannlichers had very long throats and with anticipated throat erosion, they should shoot like absolute crap with a smaller modern bullet. A Woodleigh 160gr round nose soft protruding quite a bit from the case to reduce free bore would probably tighten groups considerably.