There's an article about the French Darne shotgun called Shotgun Lust where it goes on to say that it's the most beautiful shotgun ever made. These guns haven't really changed in about 140 years. They have a sliding breech and fixed barrel, so hunters can keep the muzzle pointed through the blind during reloads. You may want to check it out at
http://www.shotgunlife.com
Why does every post from this poster always link back to the same web site? Unless Dave has agreed to this, I see a lock coming to this thread soon.
Ken
Although differant I don't think they're even the best looking shotguns made in France!! G. Granger might have a word or two to say about that.
Irwin Greenstein is the publisher of Shotgun Life, I believe! That could explain it......
The gun posted is very gaudy, kinda like a French "Lady of the Evening", just hope it don't smell the same.
binko
I'll cut to the chase.
I have been reluctant to say this for fear of hurting someones feelings that obviously spent a great deal of money on a prized possession.
The .410 Darne shown repeatedly in these linked to posts, all started evidently by the same person, presumeably now for commercial gain of some sort,
Looks like a cormorant gagging on a fish.
If Dave deletes this post because of it's uncertain reasons for submission, at least I got a chance to say what's been on my mind since I first saw the gun on the web.
I am so deviant as to have wondered if Mr. Gournet might desire to anodize the tumbler axles a vermillion color, and scratch the thing up in a feather and scale pattern.
It would be no less off putting than Hef's Francotte's or Slow hand's guns with his likeness on them.
Kens correct
This is like the ED Good posts,he just wants to advertise(in this case his website and gun mag)on here and not pay for it !
Geeze Irwin anyone can see that with your posts,every one has that link.real class...........all low
To my eye, the Darne does not compare to, say, a 20ga field grade L.C. Smith. And who reloads with the muzzle poked through a blind?
I don't know. I think the Darne is growing on me. I like the field versions anyhow.
If reloading with the muzzle out of the blind as a big deal, pumps and autos would rule the day - well, maybe they do.
I could consider a Darne even though it lacks hammers.
Brent
I have not seen Hef's Francotte.
I have seen pics of Clapton's guns and I am not surprised that he is selling the ones with his image.
I have never shot or wanted a Darne but to each his own.
The older I get the more satasfied I am with my meager battery of Spanish guns for hunting.
Charlins are very elegant and nicely machined in the lowest grades. Particularly nice with a straight hand stock as that attenuated pg knob on Darnes looks strange to American eyes.
jack
Well I guess if you liked the looks of one of these Darne's it would fit into the trunk of your favorite car.
Jim
The guy also has post-war Fransisque Darne models confused with Darne models. Easy thing to do, if you have seen an F. Darne catalog, and don't read French.
Best,
Ted
Is that a Citron Jim? kinda neat in obscure way,like a AMC Rambler.
BrentD
I am in the same boat with you. I'm warming to these guns that I used to almost hate. I can feel that they are slowly getting there hooks in me.
Regarding Clapton's guns, those guns didn't do a darn thing for me. I'd have sold them if I was him too.
Is that a Citron Jim? kinda neat in obscure way,like a AMC Rambler.
Yep Dave:
That's a Citreon SM. I watched one of these literally rot away before my eyes when I lived in the Mid West. The neighbor who owned it had a really unusual string of profanities she'd let go with every time she'd try to start the thing.
Jim
Nothing good ever came out of France, apart from their Letters.
Their kitchen creations are helluva lot better then yours Englishman.
I had one for a while, not particularly lovely, but I shot it pretty well. I let Wes Dillon at Cabelas talk me out of it on some devious deal. I'd like to have another one.
I sort of like a good "Pub Lunch" (in the right pub)
Good women, food, wine and song......but not this thingy. What's next an earring in each lobe?
Is the Darne not named after the mild expletive muttered by owners every time they pinch their skin in that guillotine of a breech?
Or every time they miss a shot because of the awful safety.
OWD
Perhaps......., but I'm bit tired of reading about that English stuff.......and rook pies. It's nice to take a breath of fresh air once in a while.
Is that a Citron Jim? kinda neat in obscure way,like a AMC Rambler.
Yep Dave:
That's a Citreon SM. I watched one of these literally rot away before my eyes when I lived in the Mid West. The neighbor who owned it had a really unusual string of profanities she'd let go with every time she'd try to start the thing.
Jim
I used to own its plain sister, the CX 2400 C-matic, which was a bit underpowered. The one shown above is the GT version, styled/engineered by the people at Maserati, which Citroen purchased back then - about 1970. It was very "cutting edge" in its day, won all sorts of awards, quirky in a French way, e.g. the indicators were not self-cancelling, because Citroen thought that a manual cancel would aid driver alertness. The pneumatic suspension was great! Mine did not have starting/rust problems, but then I did not live in the MidWest. Just as a Monday car in the US is called a lemon, the French use the same term, un citron.
K.
K.
A guy who would get his skin caught in closing a Darne would be the same guy who got his dong caught in his fly, as well. At that point, his mum would install velcro where his zipper used to be, and all would be well. All would be well that is, as long as he was your hunting partner, not mine.
Leaving the key just out of battery on a Darne is quite comfortable for field carry, and one can avoid using the left mounted safety entirely if that is what they wish. Explaining that fact to the guy with the velcro fly is likely a waste of perfectly good breath, however.
The big problem, is finding a used Darne that fits. And, that is a big problem, since they don't take well to bending the stock (there is a steel rod down the middle of the wrist).
Most gunsmithing that takes place on Darnes is to correct amatuer gunsmithing attempted previously. No need to discuss rejointing, or safe damascus wall thickness is needed. A good idea, is just that, regardless of what country it comes from.
I thought the Irish girls were prettier and more friendly than either the French or English girls I met, but, the Colombian ladies had them all beat, hands down.
I've got a Darne, and a Colombian wife. The Darne introduced me to hunting birds with a lightweight, durable, and, mostly, idiot proof design (see above, idiots have a certain ingenuity about them) and my wife introduced me to just how well a South American woman looked in a Brazilian cut bikini.
Eat your heart out.
Best,
Ted
Ted, my friend:
Not much more can be said, so=-----
Best,
John
This is an interesting thread. One of the things I find most curious about Darnes, is that in the age of modernism in which we live, the Darne remains unchanged. It seems to me a byproduct of French Roccoco and Baroque thought and design, with its emphasis on fanciful flourish over function, and yet here it is in the 21st century, apparently still doing relatively well.
Amazing.
If they could, the dead grouse in my freezer might give a pretty good argument that my unengraved, case colored R10 is relatively un-fanciful, unflourished, and mercilessly functional.
Best,
Ted
But Ted... That is the king of the forrest that you are shooting! You may want to make some adjustments.
If they could, the dead grouse in my freezer might give a pretty good argument that my unengraved, case colored R10 is relatively un-fanciful, unflourished, and mercilessly functional.
Best,
Ted
Ted, I was thinking of higher grade examples and the basic Darne design in the larger context of French culture over the last couple hundred years. Yours is a tip of the hat to modern tastes, which is probably why, in part, the gun is still around. I've heard nothing but good things about them from a functionality standpoint. I hear they handle very well, mental adjustments to breech function notwithstanding. I expect to be going through that myself soon with my recent purchase of a husky-influenced belgian side lever hammergun.
Leaving the key open? How about designing a safety that actually works?
I think the guys at Darne looked at a Greener and said "Can we design a safety that's even more of a pain in the derriere to use?"
Hahaha
Of course, I'm poking fun.
I've owned two Darnes. While they're neat, they're not for me.
The most beautiful? Hardly. An all orginal pre-WW1 H&H Royal is hard to beat. Although I hate their short triggerguards. They just look cheap to me.
Maybe a Boss with the double-bead action, or a real nice Lang & Hussey / H.J Hussey Imperial. Husseys can be beautiful guns.
Take care,
OWD
De gustibus non est disputandum!
JC
P.S.: I tend to mistrust those who trust their safeties. JC
You'll get no quarrel from me regarding an HJ Hussey Imperial.
Ted and I don't see 'eye to eye' on everything but Darnes is one of them along with Ithaca Model 37's. My first Darne was a 12 bore R10 and if truth be known, it was the best of the lot factoring in the price i paid for it used($260USD) in 1976. In any event Ted supplied my third, a Bruchet 16 gauge, that I would not part with as its as perfect as a Darne can get. It was designed as a grouse gun by me, Ted and Bruchet.-Dick
GJZ that looks like a nice gun, can you take a closer shot of the action?
Say, that is nice English shotgun. Like the name too as it rhymes with pu...
When I was taking english as kid in europe p.... stood for a little cat, but here....lets just say I got embarrased when the subject came up for the first time.
Everytime I look at good pictures of that R15 engraving, I get a little lump in my throat...Cause' that gun FIT ME TOO!!!!
Folks, that is one of two left-handed Darnes I have ever seen-the other, is my plain, old, 1946 vintage R10, and it was re-fitted that way, not ordered new that way.
Dustin, email me with details of the Darne 12-dying to know what's up.
Barn hinge....describes PERFECTLY the antiques that most folks here shoot...prone to a sloppy knuckle well before they should be...I tell you Regis, this world was never meant for one as beautiful as you, with apologies to Don McLain.
Best,
Ted
LeFusil, très, très beau fusil.
JC
I saw a Hussey Imperial like that one in Montana a few years ago. It was a beautiful gun that had been sleeved and restock to the highest degree.
Is that the same gun?
Thanks for sharing.
OWD
By the way Mr. Greenstein, you use a VISE to hold a gun not a vice.
JC
No,it is not. This Hussey shows the Jermyn Street address and has HJH stamped on the bottom of the barrels. Six pounds, eight ounces with 28-inch barrels. It's a fine grouse gun.
I'm envious - it's a very nice gun.
OWD
Thank you. It's a very likable 12-g.
Im sorry, but for the money, and of course my opinion, its one of the worst looking shotguns ever
http://www.shotgunlife.com Looks like a mule with ears.
And you look like a a.s.s. with a face. Just kidding of course.
http://www.shotgunlife.com/Art-of-the-Gun/shotgun-lust-1-2009.htmlBeauty is always in the eye of the beholder. Some art/guns appeals to individuals taste in different ways. I find the guns pictured in the link as breathtaking..the same way I feel when I see adds in the doublegun journal of David Mckay Browns round actions..or when I look at a Thomas Cole or Albert Bierstadt painting. I totally get that my taste in guns and art are not the taste of everbody else. That doesnt bother me at all, its when someone degrades something that they have no experience with or no understanding of what they are degrading.
I'm sorry...I meant to say a mule with bobbed ears.
Expertise in mules DOES NOT EQUAL expertise in double guns. Pretty sure I wouldn't buy a double gun, toothbrush, or health club membership based on your opinion, either, based on photographic evidence.
Stick to what you know. Jacklighting deer, running down turkeys with cur dogs, jelly donuts.
Best,
Ted
I don't believe I'd have called the man's boykin cross a "cur-dog". Disrespect his wife, maybe, but not his dog...Geo
They make Darnes for guys that like fat ugly women.
Yeah Ted! jOes dog is even purtier than jOe.......but not as purty as my dog or me.
<[censored] eating, road hunting, possum shooting, mule skinners wife looks like....I'm curious, very curious..
And FWIW, I would never disrespect another mans dog, his wife yes...dog no.
So Joe doesnt care for Darnes...big deal, Joe dont care for much. I think we all get it.
Truth is some people are impressed with wierd contraptions such as a Darne action...I'm not one of them.
joe you mean like, airplanes,cars ,indoor plumbing,false teeth.socks.you get the idea?
