Home / Proof Marks / "NON POUR BALLE" (not for ball)

"NON POUR BALLE" (not for ball)

Belgian (Liège) proof marks · 1878-1897.
What it looks like
The words stamped out in full, usually on the barrel.
Where it is on the gun
Barrel.
Date range
1878-1897.

What it tells you

What this mark authorises you to say

The barrel is choked. On a Belgian side-by-side it is the mark that tells you the gun has choke in one or both barrels — genuinely useful information that is otherwise invisible on a worn muzzle, and it predates the modern choke notation by more than half a century.

What it does not tell you

What this mark does NOT say

It carries no safety implication in itself, and it says nothing about the barrel material. Do not read "balle" as "bullet" in the modern sense: it is a period warning that the barrel was constricted, and the mark was retired in 1897.

Sources for this page

Every claim above is attributed. The class of source is shown with each one, because a national proof house and an anonymous forum table are not the same evidence — and on proof marks the difference matters.

Reading marks to identify and date a gun

Proof marks name the test and the era. The serial number, where a maker published a browsable chart, can name the year. The lookup cites the threshold behind every result.

Open the serial number lookup

Other belgian (liège) proof marks

Mark descriptions observed and verified 2026-10-14. Proof marks are stamped by hand on guns up to a century old; a photographed stamp and a description in a book are not the same evidence. If a mark on your gun does not match anything here, that is a real answer — see the notes on unidentified marks.