The shorter the barrels, typically, the heavier the wall. Not to say every single gun falls into that description.
I recently bought a perfectly servicable Uggie Falcon for the princely sum of $379. What was wrong? Not much-an ugly repair to the stock toe that I am pretty sure I can make disappear. If a guy wanted to learn to strike barrels something like THAT would be a better plan of attack than this old Darne.
I seem to remember Mr. Chambers being upset that I pointed out, even with his nice restock, his gun was worth about $600. I believe he thought I was picking on non-Darne name sliding breech guns, but, I was just repeating my experiences-they don't sell for a ton of money, and as used guns go, any sliding breech gun is easier to buy than to sell, in this country, anyway.
A Darne isn't that hard to restock-I watched mine happen, in France, and it took about two hours with a semi turned blank. But, stockers here have their preferences, and semi turned blanks don't come from Wal Mart.
There are individuals who collect guns that might seek something like this out to have a representative of an 1894 patent Darne gun. I have a good friend that might be interested, but, he wouldn't fix anything or ever fire it. He simply would use it as a marker in his collection until something better came along. He might go the $50 for it, but, maybe not.
Contact me at tedjs@usfamily,net if interested.
Thanks,
Ted
