doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Darne V20

I have this gun that's so darn hard to close and open with rounds in the chambers. It's OK to close and open without anything in the chambers or if I use plastic snap caps. It seems that the brass base of the regular rounds has to be squished into the barrels quite a bit for the gun to close. Any ideas about how to make it work a little easier? The gun seems to show very little use, but should be broken in already. And it is not dirty either. Any help appreciated.

I have a BRNO 16 that won't close on Remington shells, but works fine with other brands. Have you tried other shell makes in your gun?...Geo

Yes,

Same story. I can see the squeeze marks on the brass. Maybe I can polish a thousandth or two out of the chamber at the breech end, but I don't know if it isn't the obturator disks...

No, it is not the obturator discs. The most that needs to be done with this gun, and I stress the most, is for the rim space to be deepened a few thousands.
nial

See if it will close with a shell in only one or the other chamber. Maybe the problem is at least just on one side. I guess you are sure you're using the right length shell? If the chamber is 2 1/2" and you're trying to load 2 3/4" the shell may seem to fit, but may be getting stuck in the forcing cone. I'd want to be very sure what the problem was before you start altering the chambers...Geo

I have tried both 2.5 and 2.75 long shells. They both get hard to push in. I will try a picture of a shell to show where it rubs. This might give an idea where relief should be attempted?

Do you have tools with which you can measure chamber dia's. I would not do any modifications until I knew for positive what is there now.

Yes,

This is what I found out:
The chambers measure .805 at the breech end whereas other 12 ga I have measure .815 or so. This should not be a problem because I can push easily any 12 ga round in each of the barrels. Unfortunately the obturator disks are not in absolute perfect alignment with the bores, therefore the increased friction.
I smoked the inside of the chambers and this is what I saw:


I hope you can see the bit of black smoke on the side of the brass.
Can I polish 5-10 thou of the chamber with a wooden dowel and emery cloth or I need a chamber reamer?

Have a DARNE R-16 in 10 gauge with a similar problem. The gun has 2-7/8 chambers so I've cut down Federal primed hulls and loaded my own. The Federals chamber, but with resistance to being pushed in; they don't just drop in. Fired rounds eject with no trouble, but the unfired rounds often will not extract because the Federals are too tight a squeeze at the base. Nothing, in my case, to do with rim thickness or obturator disks.

The gun is now with Kirk Merrington who is DARNE qualified. He's putting a recoil pad on (primarily to give me a longer LOP), and he'll be looking at the size problem. Expect he'll ease off a few thou at the back of the chamber, but he might just tighten up on the fit between the extractor lever and whatever you call it on the sliding breech that causes it to move the extractors outward. He hasn't told me what's what yet.

I'd check him out before messing with your chambers. V20s need the best...

Hopefully we'll get some word from Ted Schefelbein or Geoffroy Gournet on this.

Regards

Tim,

Your R16 story sounds just like mine. Rounds are hard to chamber by pushing with the sliding action, but easy to do by hand.
The action closes normally when there are no rounds being loaded, therefore I think the leverage works properly.
THe shells show signs of friction on the brass and the breech side of the chamber measures less than standard, so I believe I found the problem. I will try to polish a bit the inside of the chambers where they seem to rub the rounds.
Thanks for the advise.