[mightythor101]

Here is the story on all of the Belgian copies made in Liege, etc. I learned about it when I was researching a Belgian made Colt model 1851 revolver. When Sam Colt went to Europe to sell his patent on his revolvers, after he went to England, he went to Belgium. There, he was successful in selling it, but he did not have any attorneys explain, or dig into Belgian patent law. What he found out, was that in Belgium, patent law says that if a company buys a patent, and does not begin production within one year of the signing, it is void.......... so the Belgian gun companies paid no royalties to him for all of the Colts they produced. When the American Civil War began, they were making and selling pistols for the American War as fast as they could, it is a wonder that so few of them turn up for sale these days.
The other thing with Belgian firearms on that, and later era, was metalurgy. metal hardening was not a science until after 1900 or 1910, so the steel used to make these pistols is not very good quality, which is why so many of them are wobbly.
They are not really safe to shoot any longer, just like the old wire twist shotgun barrels. I would not recommend shooting any of these, no matter how nice they look.
A local man here from our local gun club fired trapdoor Springfields in our high powered rifle matches for decades, and he always fired the same ones, and about 10 years ago now, one of them that he had fired literally almost all of his life, exploded, and sent metal fragments into his face, and he was seriously injured. So please have a very competant gunsmith check any of these old pistols and rifles out before you shoot them. I am all for firing the old stuff, I shot an 1871/84 Mauser rifle and 1871 Mauser Cavalry Carbine for decades, and those wont have any problems probably ever, but the lock up systems on these old revolvers, and trap door models, combined with the metal craftsmanship of the day, makes them a little shaky.