Agreed. I never much saw the sense in using "belly-button" guns. I was planning on getting that M79, and passing off the story I obtained it from a German Artillery officer who absconded to the Dominion of Canada to try his luck as a farmer/rancher/fiserman/maple syrup making guy
or whatever. I just couldn't part with $1250 for a gun I know is only worth $850 to $900... call me crazy.
My Uberti S&W repros garner a bit of attention, but I always get a double take with my Whitney-Kennedy with the S-lever. I was involved in a historical recreation last Saturday evening, and I kept getting asked "What kind of Winchester is that?" Even the professional re-enactors were stymied. Adds variety. Too boring if everyone has a '92 or '73 Winnie, and SAA style pistols (matching no less... that was one of the running gags on "Blazing Saddles"). Us fellers that have the hodge-podge setups are a breed apart from the rest.
I don't see why a CAS club would refuse to let someone use French, German, British, or other European designs. As long as they were produced in the proper time frame. They all washed up on the shores of North America somehow. It is plausable they could have seen use on the Frontier. That's my one small gripe about NRA BPCR Silhouette - only AMERICAN designs allowed. No Farquharson style actions, Martinis, or my favourite... Alexander Henry *sigh*, et al. But I guess I don't have the gold, so that's why I don't make the rules.