doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Magnificent Ideal Pair

If you want to see how fast I can (or anybody who has practiced) shoot with a Darne, bring a couple to Flatwater and I'll show you how its done ;-)

Dustin

You're the Darne guy, Dustin--not me. Bring your own and find a loader. If I can find a pair of toplever ejectors to use, maybe we can set up a flurry and see which works faster.

I dont own a Darne or Ideal anymore. :-( But I do have a couple self openers we can try out.

Dustin

That is a beautiful pair of guns but I think the price is 10K euro more than they are worth. Only way to know is to buy them and then try to sell them later. That is one way to find out for certain that you paid too much.

Classic use of straight grained wood. For 45,000 USD most here would expect much higher level of figure in the wood. Funny how little some people are concerned with great wood, perfect checkering or extensive engraving with inlays. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

As to speed of use, many Corvettes are not driven much over the speed limit and the 55+ year old owners still enjoy them. I would still enjoy them if they were slow to load and I could only enjoy them S-L-O-W-L-Y.

I will contribute my bit on Ideals and opening.

Pressing the spur behind the trigger guard cocks the locks, therefore the barrels do not have anything to do but open, and do in fact drop quite easily thus justifying calling the Ideal an easy opener. Also, on closing ejector models, the ejector coil springs are mild, so the gun is also an easy closer.

As a poster said above re a popular single, the underspur can be a very fast loader in practiced hands. I have shot mine 12 times in one minute using the method described in the post above.

I do not know how fast a pair of Ideals would be with a loader and how they would compare to top levers. But with a stuffer (he places shells in the opened gun) I would bet the Ideal would be faster than a top lever. It is by far the more ergonomic opening system.

Oh, and to close, I have seen at least one higher grade Ideal than the ones pictured.

And I don't own a pair of toplever guns anymore either. Dustin, you change horses (or guns) about as often as I do!

I'm picturing this speed contest. I'd think a top lever and the underlever or spur of an Ideal are about equally ergonomic as there's a thumb or a digit or two in close proximity in the act of shooting and subsequently. I'd say squeezing the underlever of an Ideal is a bit harder than pushing over the toplever of most barrel-droppers as the spur is doing ALL the unbolting and cocking work in the Ideal and barrel weight and gravity are doing the cocking work in many toplever guns. If you have a good grip, practise a lot, and have plenty of baksheesh for the loader, I can see why this drop-barrel gun should present its chambers for reloading in a conventional attitude and encourage efficient reloading. It would be interesting to see Dustin's approach to a Darne or Charlin as I would think the breechblock and the toggle lever present a different challenge to the loader? What are the "onions" at the intersection of bar and stock head on the Ideal pair?

jack