There does indeed seem to be a little "clunk" in the middle of the closing stroke of an R, Nial, but, it is further and further reduced as the gun gets more use on it, to the point that the gun is eventually smooth as silk. Not quite as smooth as a V or a Charlin, but nice all the same.
My favorites are well used R guns, with lots of rounds and years on them. I mostly don't care for a V because of the "pop" when it opens. No defect that I can decern, just personal preference.
New ones, V and Rs, can be a bear. And, I have discovered that just playing with them, opening and closing, doesn't break them in-you have to go out and shoot them.
I owned a 16 gauge Charlin, the gun pictured in DGJ, and a good friend still does. I like them, but, I like the idea of an R a whole lot more, with the breech being locked by two different fasteners, to the barrels, when the gun is closed.
It isn't an accident that is the design used for rifles and slug guns.
True story. In the western metro area of the twin cities of Mpls and St. Paul, works a gunsmith. He is a very good Winchester/Remington/Mossberg/Knight gunsmith, if, you know what I mean. At a gunshow, he informed me that a Darne "was an unsafe design" and he didn't work on them. I asked him why he believed that to be true, and he produced from under the table the most beat with a ugly stick low grade Charlin I have ever seen, and informed me that "the damn thing opens up when you shoot it". I asked if he used low pressure ammunition, of the correct length for the chambers, to which he replied he didn't know. I also informed him it wasn't a Darne, it was a Charlin, and said so right on the opening key. His less than well thought out response was, "So? Whats the difference"?
When I tried to explain that a Darne and a Charlin are truly not the same, and that the Charlin couldn't open at the shot, but, might complain about the wrong ammunition being used in it by lifting the key a bit out of the trigger interrupter, I could see his eyes glazing over, and I realized I might as well have been at the beach at that point.
Did I ever tell you about my boat?
Best,
Ted
