Having never held a Darne in my hands, I am curious about something. This gun has what looks to be ejectors, and if so, do the ejected hulls hit the breech and fall away, or is there some mechanism to clear them on each side ? It looks like it would be slow to reload, but looks can be deceiving.
SRH
What you are seeing in the photo is not an ejector. It is a spring loaded mortised plate that acts as an extractor to lift un-fired rounds out of the breech end of the barrels. The gun has ejectors, which, are simply hooks under the sliding breech, that pull fired rounds out of the barrels. The hooks disengage from the rim at full opening, and a pin on the face of the obturator disc gives them a shove left or right. My R10 lacks the obturator discs and the pins, a system I prefer anyway, as I can collect the emptys after they clear the hooks, but, before they are tossed off the watertable. You can also simply tilt the gun at opening and they will fall clear.
I can reload a Darne about as fast as I can reload a conventional non-ejector double or O/U. I've had one for a long time, however. I know Dustin can do it, too.
I wouldn't bet on Larry Brown being able to pull it off smoothly.
Best,
Ted
