One barrel, three bores: the Buffalo Mitraille rifle.

Some time ago, a collector friend of mine, sent me pictures of a nice piece. A Buffalo Mitraille rifle in .22 Long Rifle. As I knew this weapon only through catalogs’ reproductions from the « Manufacture d’Armes et Cycles de Saint-Etienne », I immediately wanted to see the weapon and better still, test it at the shooting range. These rifles are relatively rare on the retail market and hard to come by on the shooting ranges. As the commercials of the time were praising ballistic and precision results, I needed a try for sure !

Therefore, we could carry out a test in condition with this rifle, mainly shooting at 50 meters on targets and on gongs. As luck would have it, a few weeks after this test, I had the opportunity to acquire another model of the weapon, in a less luxurious and a slightly different version.

The documentation on this weapon family essentially comes from Jean-Claude Mournetas’s work: « La carabine Buffalo de Pierre Blachon ».  This book is extremely interesting and rich in references and draws on the author’s researches and analysis. Two men are responsible for the creation of the Buffalo system rifle: Mr. Mimart and Mr. Blachon. They joined forces together in 1895. At that time, as in recent years, the fashion for small, low-caliber rifles was in full swing. Intended for salon shooting(pas sûr du terme ici), recreational use or small game hunting, these guns were increasingly popular. It must be said that the restrictions on armaments under the French Second Empire (insérer les dates?) had just been relaxed and gun companies were flourishing.